Unforeseen Danger
by FF7-CloudStrife
Summary: -Finished- Five friends play "The World" and are thrown into the midst of the twilight incident. I suck at summeries and this is my first fic ever. R&R please.
1. Chapter 1: Vision of Death

"Unforeseen Danger"  
  
Chapter 1: Vision of Death  
  
Prologue: "Yo David, I heard about this new game called "The World" and I was wondering if you wanted to try it with me sometime." Jon stood talking to his friend heading to their normal meeting place for lunch. He didn't want to start this popular on-line game alone so he recruited some of his friends.  
  
"Sure I'm game for any kind of RPG. As long as I can be the spellcaster of the group." David had always been that kind of guy, more into the fantasy realm of games and more mystic in his explanations of things.  
  
"Cool, Log on at about seven tonight. Get it started early so you can get the registration and character model done. By the way, my character name will be The Enigma, don't forget."  
  
"Don't worry, I won't and my name will be Chaosb1ade."  
  
The Story: As Jon entered the Delta root town of Mac Anu he noticed few people were there playing. It was strange to see so few people on-line knowing "The World" was a popular game world-wide. He thought about it for only about a minute then guessed it was only people were in a different server. After shopping for a recovery items, he noticed some people back at the chaos gate. It was a group of a twin blade in a black ninja-like outfit and two wavemasters one a guy with typical long robe and the other a girl with short hair in pig tails.  
  
"Yo people, you're all a bit early but that's cool," Jon yelled as he ran toward the chaos gate.  
  
"Hey you," said Jasmine, the twin blade, "Ah you made yourself a heavy blade, that could be helpful as another attacker, seeing we have two wavemasters. By the way I'm DarkAngel, Kelly here is called Sakura and David is..."  
  
"Chaosb1ade, yeah I know, what about Lan," Jon said showing he wanted to get going.  
  
Kelly spoke up," She said she was busy and couldn't get on-line right away but probably later if she has time."  
  
Jon told them all of them of the field that they were going to start training at. The field was Delta Burning Passed Over Aqua Field, a very easy field just meant for new players to get used to "The World".  
  
"I bought some fairy orbs while I was waiting for you guys. We'll split up into two groups and search the dungeon because the field is clear," Jon told everyone.  
  
"Alright let's pair up one wavemaster and one attacker," said Jasmine," I'll take David and you take Kelly and at the first fork in the road we'll split up." The group spilt up shortly after entering the dungeon.  
  
The next room after splitting up, Jon and Kelly ran into a portal.  
  
"What is that Jon," Kelly said obviously scared at how the portal changed and suddenly some monsters came rushing out of it.  
  
"I'll get their attention, you just keep me healed and cast what attacks skills you can," Jon yelled as he rushed head toward the portal.  
  
Jon swung the blade off his back and rushed toward the first thing he saw with sword ready to strike. The goblin went straight at him growling and holding up its own small dagger. Kelly stayed back and couldn't move for a second. To her the goblin was real and that Jon was in real danger by rushing in. The sound of Jon's voice snapped her out of it.  
  
"What's wrong Kelly, I need your help."  
  
Kelly came out of her daze and quickly cast a fire skill and incinerated the goblin. Jon came back to her. "That was a little intense huh?"  
  
"Sorry about that, it just seemed so real."  
  
"Don't worry about it. It's not that easy having some monster right in your face trying to swinging a sword around."  
  
Kelly healed Jon and continued on to the bottom of the dungeon. After a while everyone met up at a room that had purple flames rising up from the ground.  
  
"What could this fire mean," David said as he started to inspect it.  
  
"It's probably something saying we're at the end the dungeon or something big is in the next room," said Jasmine with a worried look on her face.  
  
"Don't worry about it, if anything in there is too big we can always run from it and log out or go to another field, no big," said Kelly being her normal, perky self.  
  
If only that were true, because as they went in they found another group was there fighting a very large monster that had horns on its head and a red wand with the top shaped like a circle with a cross inside of it.  
  
"What the hell is that thing," Jon said too scared to move at all, "and who are those other guys."  
  
"Should we help them or just run like we planned to do," David looking for someone to take charge.  
  
"I say we do what we can to help those other guys," Kelly said as she rushed forward to heal who she could.  
  
"Whatever, if we die, we die," Jon rushed after her sword ready to strike.  
  
The rest joined in and not long after Kelly, Jon, David, and Jasmine joined in the fight something strange happened. One of the other fighters attacked the stone giant but to no avail. The beast stopped his attack with the red wand and then somehow trapped him with it. The worst sight possible happened then when the monster disappeared and then reappeared in front of the wand and the captured warrior. The monster held out its arm and suddenly the arm glowed with a ring of light. The ring spread out into a bracelet and then blasted the warrior with a strange beam of light. After the blast subsided, the injured warrior simply vanished without a trace. The fallen warrior's friends took off after seeing this and so did Jasmine and her group.  
  
After returning to Mac Anu, no one said anything for a while just because they needed to understand what they had just witnessed.  
  
"Can anyone tell me what the hell just happened back there," Jon said just to break the silence.  
  
"I don't think anyone can tell us what went on and if that monster was some sort of super monster or whatever," David said not really knowing what to say.  
  
"The only thing I do know is that is not part of the game at all", Jasmine yelled as she was shaking.  
  
"Hey perhaps the guy is all right and he just logged off, come on this is a game where players die all the time, and maybe that is just a different death animation," Kelly said this to convince the others everything was all right but she was only trying to convince herself.  
  
The silence resumed with no one saying a word and no one really moving from their position until suddenly they all received an e-mail. Everyone left the game to check the mail. When they returned only Jon and David came back. They thought that both of the girls had left and after their incident they didn't blame them. Seeing that giant just blast the fellow player into nothing was just something unsettling and just couldn't sit right in either of their minds.  
  
"I checked the board, "Jon started," but I guess the guy that disappeared has come back on-line and I guess his friends are looking for him."  
  
"Should we go look for him ourselves?"  
  
"Maybe I'm not sure. It's just that what if we run into the thing again will it try to do the same things to us."  
  
"Come on we'll all go."  
  
The two turned to see that Jasmine and Kelly were at the chaos gate with another girl. A Heavy Axeman that wore a light pink dress and had small angel wings on her back. All three looked fairly light-hearted considering what had happened.  
  
"Is that you Lan," Jon seemed startled," I just never thought you would pick such an attack based character instead of a twin blade or blademaster. "  
  
"Yeah it's me and I picked this model because of the angelic appearance to it," her voice was calm like she hadn't heard anything.  
  
"Has Kelly told you of what happened before you got here?"  
  
"Yeah, it sounds so strange about that guy going missing."  
  
"The e-mail I got wasn't one that helped me stop thinking about it either. It was from some woman named Helba, and I read on the board she is a hacker and a good one at that. She told me that if I wanted to live to forget about what we saw and not to figure any of it out."  
  
Jasmine spoke to him," So that's why you were you so unsure about seeking this thing out."  
  
"Yeah, but your right we need to at least find out what happened to that guy. Let's all go back to that dungeon to see if "it's" there."  
  
They all returned to Delta Burning Passed Over Aqua Field and after going back to where they had seen the giant before. This time nothing was there, only an empty room with no treasure, no portals, nothing. Even the purple flames that were in front of the doorway to that room were missing. The whole dungeon was searched, even the room with the gott statue and still nothing was found. Everyone decided to leave and head back to town. Without any clue on where that giant or player went everyone decided to log off and get some sleep.  
  
The next day Jon received another message from Helba saying that obviously he didn't take her up on her warning, but how could she have known where he had gone that night. After checking the message board again he found a new strand titled "coma". The strand mentioned that certain players had fallen into a comatose state. He thought of the player yesterday that had "died". Was he also one of these players who had fallen into a coma also? He logged in to tell everyone what he has just read. 


	2. Chapter 2: Data Bug

Chapter 2: Data Bug  
  
As Jon got back to the Mac Anu he noticed Jasmine and Lan were around town shopping and trading with other players. He called them over to them about the message thread he had just seen.  
  
"That seemed so strange that people have gone into comas over playing an on- line game," Lan saying with surprise over the news of the comatose players.  
"I guess it's like those seizures that happened in Japan from the flashing lights on some games," said Jasmine.  
"Yeah, but those people came out of it not long after the seizure happened, these coma victims have been that way for months," Jon pointed out.  
"Anything word about that guy we saw in the dungeon," Jasmine asked.  
"Nothing except his friends are looking for him, but I'm wondering more about this Helba character. She knew that we were there when we saw the monster and that we went back there after she gave us a warning not to pursuit that "thing". Maybe she's either behind the monster, or that she's trying to stop it, or even just seeing the path of destruction and death that thing could do," Jon said staring into open space.  
  
Just then David and Kelly showed up then. With everyone there Jon decided was it time to talk about to tell them about the coma victims. Kelly had gotten some mail from the people who faced of with the horned monster from the incident. They confirmed the worries that their friend who had been blasted was in fact a coma victim.  
  
"Great, not only do we have threats from a hacker, but know we know this game can cause people to go into a coma," Lan angry and scared.  
"Well, at least we know that if we see this thing again, then we should run from it instead of trying to beat it and risk being put into comas ourselves," Kelly trying to raise everyone's spirits.  
"That's one good thing to consider and maybe we should follow Helba's advice not to mess with this thing anymore. Let's go play at another dungeon and get our minds off these bad times," Jon said running toward the chaos gate.  
  
The party went off to Delta Chosen Forgotten Holy Ground. This field was a dark place where it was raining and many hills could be seen on the horizon. Jon and Lan took the front being characters with high amount of health and attack strength. Jasmine stayed back with the wavemasters to offer some protection and healing. Clearing the field of portals offered up some better weapons, recovery items, and much needed armor. Everyone started to forget about what had happened yesterday. They started playing "The World" like regular players and having a great time until they reached the bottom floor.  
  
"Great, it's that purple flame/haze or whatever it is," Jon showing his irritation, "and things were looking good before this."  
"Could that thing be in the next room like last time," Jasmine asked as the horrible image of the monster and its wand flashed in her mind.  
"Only one way to find out, and if it is there we'll run from it before it has a chance to trap us with that wand," Kelly ran toward the door but stopped by both Lan's axe and Jon's sword.  
"Hey, don't go rushing in there after what happened last time," Jon shouted raising he sword slightly, "I don't want anybody else going into a coma on my watch."  
"Come on what are the chances we run into that thing again," David said pushing Jon aside to enter the room.  
"Nothing wrong with being too cautious though," Jasmine grabbed the two wavemasters and yanked them back, "If you two are so sure about going in there at least let one of us go with you."  
"Whatever, let's just go because there is no changing their minds about this," Lan said as she started into the room.  
  
One good thing that did happen was that the room didn't have the monster with the red wand, but it contained a golem with a strange glow to it. Everyone was at first relieved that it wasn't what they thought it was, but then fear that this "golem" was different than others they had seen before. Soon after the fight began something was different about this golem.  
  
"What is with that HP on this thing, it's all garbled and I can't tell how much it has and how much damage we've done to it," Jasmine yelled to everyone else.  
"Yeah, but every monster has die eventually, so I say we keep hitting it with all we have," David called out as he hit it with numerous skills.  
"Arghh, nothing seems to work at all," Jon still hitting it," This thing keeps on coming. It must be the glow all over its body. It forms into little patches of armor or something that must be giving it some kind of invincibility."  
  
The golem then smacked Jon with a giant fist sending him flying into Lan and sending both of them into a wall. Both were alive, but severe damage had been received and Jon started coughing up blood, and it seemed like Lan had a broken arm and leg. It was amazing that the game even simulated blood and realistic injuries, perhaps too amazing.  
  
As everyone concentrated attacks on the green patches of "armor", blades and other means of attack just bounced off. Supplies were running short and some had died a couple times and had been revived. All seemed hopeless like yesterday, they could do nothing against this opponent and they knew it. Out of nowhere, a twin blade in red jumped in and attacked the golem. Like many strong attacks that had been done to the body of the golem, the golem staggered backward and seemed stunned. It seemed like a shield surrounding the entire monster and even the glowing patches seemed to appear and break apart.  
  
The new boy suddenly turned to face the golem, and did something all too familiar to Kelly and her friends. The boy started to levitate a bit and outstretched his arm; a ring of light came from his wrist. The light stretched out into a bracelet much like the one they had seen before but used by the evil coma causing monster. Everyone was frozen in terror because of what that bracelet had done last time it was used. The boy raised his right arm to the air as the bracelet started to glow even brighter. He then shot his arm forward ahead of him, and the same beam of light that had put the previous player into a coma had struck the golem and removed the armor patches surrounding it. The patches were then absorbed by the boy and his bracelet and then the boy and slowly returned to the ground. After that, the boy hunched over as if he was in pain, but managed to say something before he passed out.  
  
"You..can...kill....it....now," then he lay on the floor silent, alive but silent.  
"You heard him, and the HP count is normal now, lets take this golem out," Jon raised his sword and started hacking away at it.  
"Either Kelly or David should check out that guy to see if he's alright being he just probably saved our lives," Jasmine yelled back.  
"This monster is an earth element so lets hit it with some kind of wind or wood element," David said as he cast a kind of tornado spell.  
  
After the tornado dissipated, the golem fell, and crumbled into many small pebbles. After injuries were healed between the group, everyone went over to the twin blade to make sure he was ok. He was still motionless, but still alive. After about five more minutes, the boy rose to his feet but still limped around.  
  
"Hey, are you ok," Kelly rushing to keep him from falling over again," what did you do to that golem?"  
"Yeah we couldn't do anything to it until you came along," Lan surprised at what she saw," and what was with that light coming out of your arm."  
"It was the same thing that put the other player into a coma," Jasmine said as she glared at the boy," what's your name and why did you help us, if that's what you meant to do?"  
"My name is Kite," said the twin blade still unable to find his footing," I helped you because you guys could never beat that golem without me removing the virus from its body."  
"Those patches on it was, a virus," David responded with astonishment. Kite explained, "Yes, "The World" has been infected with a virus and certain monsters have become invulnerable to all kinds of attack at least until I can drain the virus out of it.  
"But this draining has a strange affect of leaving you helpless for brief periods of time," Jon eyeing him," By the way, do you know a person named Helba."  
"She was the one who told me to come here to aid a group of new players."  
  
This was starting to become very strange. From what seemed to Jon as just as simple game had turned into so much more. Invincible monsters, strange bracelets, comatose patients who played the game, and now a stalker watching every move Jon and his friends made. Was this all coincidence, an event in the game that was meant to happen, or something much, much more that could lead to something beyond their understanding. All that was known was that only the hacker Helba and the mysterious Kite probably knew the answer. 


	3. Chapter 3: Kite and Aura

Disclaimer: I don't own .Hack, game or anime, so don't sue me over what I write.

A/N: I've played the games, and I don't remember what fields had events in them and which didn't. If someone reviews me with the corrections, I would appreciate it and I will be sure to note it. R&R people. I'll set my pref so I can recieve anonymous reviews as well, so don't worry about leaving you name. 

Chapter 3: Kite and Aura  
  
As Jon, his friends, and Kite returned to Mac Anu, Jon and Jasmine suddenly turned their attention to the boy who had the strange power that had put someone into a coma. Their thinking was that if someone had that kind of power that they would use it to their own good, or was only the monster they had seen before but in disguise.  
  
"How did you get that bracelet anyway Kite," Jon started getting closer toward the strange boy," I'd like to know because we know only one thing that has that bracelet and the kind of power you wield." He reached back for his sword.  
  
"You think that I'm the one who's been putting players into comas, huh," Kite acting very calm through the interrogation.  
  
Kite told the group about his first trip to "The World" and how he had also seen the monster with the power of the bracelet and how it had gotten his friend Yasuhiko (Known as Orca to players in "The World"), and how he had gotten it from a strange girl in white. Hearing this story started to get Jon to believe that Kite wasn't going to hurt them, but he still wasn't completely sure of anything.  
  
"You said that you knew Helba," Jon started again, "We need to talk with her."  
  
"I don't know where she is," Kite confessed, "I only get emails from her every so often about problems that are happening in 'The World'. By the way who are you people, I just like to know who I've saved."  
  
Everyone got acquainted and gave Kite their thanks. Just then, everyone received new mail, and everybody left to check what is was about. After a few minutes only Jon, Kelly, and Kite returned.  
  
"I got a message from David and Jasmine saying they had to do something else and they would come back later," Jon telling Kelly, "Other than that I got a message from Helba."  
  
"I got something from Lan saying she was going to bed and she'd see us tomorrow," Kelly said, "and I got something from Helba as well. It said that we should consider ourselves lucky that she sent Kite to save us."  
  
"She told me that too, but she added on that if we wanted to learn more about Kite and the bracelet, to tag along with him for a while, or to visit her."  
  
"How can we go see her if we don't know where she is?"  
  
"Perhaps she'll tell me where she is or tell me where there is a clue to her whereabouts," Kite piped in, "Ever since I received the bracelet, she has always been kind and helped me." Kite left to email Helba.  
  
"Jon, do you really think we can trust Kite," Kelly asked Jon, "That guy has that strange bracelet, and what if he turns on us?"  
  
"I thought of that, and I think we can trust him being he's seen the same thing we saw, but one difference is that it happened to his friend and not just another player. Besides if he could tell us how he got the bracelet, we could get it ourselves and then use it to beat that horned beast."  
  
"It can't be that easy to get that kind of power and if we do get it, do you think we could control it?"  
  
"What do you mean?"  
  
"Kite said he's had the bracelet for a while, but he collapsed after using it on that golem, and he couldn't get back up for at least ten minutes."  
  
"Yeah, so?"  
  
"We know nothing about the bracelet except that it can send people into a coma and it can help us defeat a virus that somehow got into the game."  
  
"Hmm, let's just wait till tomorrow so we get everyone's opinion about this. I'll mail Kite and tell him that we have to go and we'll mail him if we need to ask him. Let's talk about this at school so we're sure we won't have anyone to mess with us."  
  
"Okay, see you at school."  
  
Kelly took off, but Jon decided to stay for a bit and checked something he saw back at the golem room. When he got there he inspected a piece of the wall that looked blurry and different than the rest of the walls in the dungeon. As he rubbed his hand on it, the "regular" wall was solid, but as his hand got to the blurred part, his hand went through it. Jon pulled his hand back to make sure nothing was wrong with it. It came back intact but somehow felt strange, like he had touched something but at the same time hadn't. He put his hand back in to further inspect the "hole" in the wall. He tried pulling it apart to see if he could at least put his head in to see what's inside the hole. It worked and eventually he made the hole large enough for his whole body in. He stepped in and looked back to make sure if he could find the way back out. Inside was an empty room that had many fallen chairs scattered around the room and in many fallen positions. Nothing else was there except a little girl sitting in one of the chairs, with her head down, not moving an inch, even when Jon called to her. As Jon approached the girl, an image of the horned monster came into view and pointed his wand at him. This image was different than the monster he had seen before, instead of being solid, the image looked ghost-like. Jon passed through the image like it wasn't even there. As he got closer to the girl, she suddenly stood up from her chair and started walking toward him, with her head still down. Jon reached for his sword and after he touched it, he was suddenly unable to move. He stood there motionless, with sword in hand, but unable to unsheathe it. Although unable, to move he was able to see, and able to talk. The girl came closer with and started to say something, but Jon was unable to hear what.  
  
"W.. a.. ..u .e.e?"  
  
"Hey, let me out of here, what are you going to do with me?"  
  
"..y a.. .u. he..?"  
  
"I can't here you, what are you saying?"  
  
"Why are you here?"  
  
"I came because I saw something in the wall back there."  
  
"Do you want the power of the twilight?"  
  
"Power of the twilight?"  
  
"The power to either save the world or destroy it depending on the user of it."  
  
"What could have that kind of power?"  
  
"You have witnessed it once before, have you not?"  
  
"Huh? I don't know what your talking about?"  
  
"I you wish to have the power, then come see me again."  
  
The force that had held Jon in place gave way, and Jon was able to move his body freely again. Before he was able to ask the girl any questions, she had faded away into nothing, leaving Jon there alone. He ran from the room and out of the dungeon. He instantly logged off and sent his friends an email to come right away and not to ask any questions, he even contacted Kite. He told them to meat him in the Lambda server near the recorder. He sat motionless right next to the recorder in Carmina Gadelica, the Lambda root town, waiting to see if any of his friends would come. Over an hour passed by but it seemed like an eternity. It was about midnight before anyone came. Much to Jon's displeasure, only Kite came.  
  
"Why are you calling this late," Kite sounding a bit tired.  
  
"I need to know about your bracelet," Jon sounding irritated, "Where did you get it and from whom?"  
  
"It came from a book that was given to my friend Yasuhiko. When was sent into a coma, I took the book and ran. Later in a fight with one of those infected enemies, I opened the book. The book fused with me and I suddenly had the bracelet on my arm."  
  
"Where did Yasuhiko get the book?"  
  
"From a little girl in a long, white, dress, why do you ask?"  
  
"No reason just wanted to clarify that and find out how one could get such a powerful piece of equipment."  
  
"This bracelet has been a curse because it has had people run from me and some try to kill me over it."  
  
"I see, not everyone would be cool with another player having the same power as a monster that has put people into a coma."  
  
"You said you needed to see Helba?"  
  
"Yeah, know where I can see her face to face?"  
  
"I don't but I know someone who might, his name is Balmung."  
  
"Balmung, how would he know Helba?"  
  
"I know it sounds strange but they both know about the bracelet and what powers it holds, so all I can say is that they might know where to find each other."  
  
"Thanks for the info, and sorry about giving you such a hard time the first time we met."  
  
"Don't worry about it, see you around, I need to catch on my sleep."  
  
"LATES."  
  
Kite left leaving Jon to wait for anyone else to come. Unfortunately, no one came and when it got to around three AM, Jon went to bed. During the day at school, everyone noticed Jon wasn't himself, besides his dozing off when he could.  
  
"Hey Jon, it's one thing to sleep in class but at lunch too, come on what's wrong with you," Jasmine slapping him to wake him up.  
  
"Sorry, I was up really late last night checking something out," Jon yawned out his response.  
  
"Does it have anything to do with the email you sent us," Lan asked curiously.  
  
"Yeah, I found something in the last dungeon, and I had to show you guys."  
  
"Really, does it have anything to do with Kite or Helba," David asked.  
  
"At least one thing about Kite, oh and he said that he knew someone who might know where we could find Helba."  
  
"Who," Lan asked.  
  
"Balmung of the Azure Sky. Meet me tonight in Mac Anu, and I'll show you what kept me up." 

Chapter 3 End

A/N: Yeah I know this chapter is pretty boring and had no action in it at all but it is meant for story progression. Next chap will be the same, but chapter 5 will be back to my normal writing. Hope you enjoy this fanfic because I love writing it. I thank those who have reviewed and given me insight, including my friends: Kelly, and Jasmine (yes, they are real people who help with my work), and Re-Hash. I will have Chapter 4 done very soon and chapter 5 done in a few more days. R&R so I know to keep posting this story.


	4. Chapter 4: Acquiring the Bracelet

Disclaimer: I don't own .Hack so no sueing me or death threat reviews. Chapter 4: Acquiring the Bracelet  
  
That night, Jon and his friends returned to the bottom level of the dungeon in Delta, Chosen, Forgotten, Holy Ground. Jon showed his friends the hole he had made in the wall. It had shrunk a bit, but it was still noticeable. Jon led everyone through and had them meat the strange girl from before. She had been in the same chair as before and approached Jon again.  
  
"So, you have returned," she said in the same eerily calming voice.  
  
"Yes, and I have brought some of my friends to see you," Jon said.  
  
"Why are you all here? By that, I mean, why are you all here after the things you have experienced?"  
  
"I'm here to prevent anyone else from being put into a coma."  
  
"The thrill of the game," Jasmine said.  
  
"Are you not afraid of what Skieth, that horned demon, can do", the girl calmly asks.  
  
"Of course were afraid," David said coming forward.  
  
"No one wants to be put into comas so we're here to stop it," Kelly next to David.  
  
"We'll stop it any way possible," Lan brandishing her axe.  
  
"I see there is no way to convince you all to turn back or to forget about this," The girl showing defeat in her eyes, "Though I can't stop you, I will help you."  
  
"How can you help us," Jasmine surprised at the remark.  
  
"I can you give you the power that Kite has, the power to combat Skieth and the virus that plagues this world."  
  
"You're the one who gave Kite the bracelet, aren't you," Jon remembering Kite's story.  
  
"I gave the power to a player named Orca."  
  
"Orca," Jon seeming surprised," Orca must have been the one who was with Kite, and put into a coma by Skieth."  
  
"Why did you give the power to Orca anyway," Lan asked.  
  
"He was the only one I thought could defeat Skieth, but I see I was wrong," said the mysterious girl.  
  
"I see," Kelly realized, "What is your name anyway; I'd rather know who I'm receiving a gift from."  
  
"My name is Aura."  
  
"Well Aura," Jasmine pushing through everybody else, "are you going to give us this power or not."  
  
"Very well," Aura put her arms in front of her and something started to appear. The object materialized in to a book with a strange marking on the cover. She held it out and gave it to Jon," Open this book and you shall receive the power of the twilight."  
  
"But there is only one book, and there are five of us here," Jon staring at the weird book, "How can all of us use one book?"  
  
The book instantly spilt into five. Aura then disappeared before questions could be asked. Jon handed out a copy to everyone else and led them out of the room. Each of them thought how a book could contain the power that they had seen Skieth and Kite use.  
  
"Should we open these books now or later," David asked with apprehension holding the book in front of him.  
  
"I say we open these now, but not all at once," Jon said, "Just in case we pass out from getting the bracelet like Kite did when he used it on that golem."  
  
"Your right, at least one of us should make sure the others are ok after we open these books," Kelly said.  
  
"I nominate myself to stand guard and check on everyone else," Lan said eagerly.  
  
"We should go to a secure field that no one will be at so we don't have any uninvited guests," Jasmine pointed out, "and I know just the place."  
  
She led them to Delta, Hidden, Forbidden, Holy Ground which wasn't much except a church and a walkway leading to the church. Nothing was there, which is what they wanted. Jon, Kelly, Jasmine, and David pulled out their books and stared at them. Jon and Jasmine were the first to open the books. A white light, emitted from the books, blinding everyone who looked at it. The books flew out of their hands and flew straight into them. Their bodies seemed to absorb the books and both seemed ready to fall over, but then regained composure.  
  
"Are you two ok," David asked.  
  
"What a rush," Jon exclaimed, "That was something incredible. The light was blinding then I felt like my body lost all feeling, and then felt like I was infused with life."  
  
"Your bodies seemed to turn into data like something out of the matrix," Kelly said, "and then strange markings appeared on your clothes, markings like on the books."  
  
"It was one of the strangest feelings in my life," Jasmine exclaimed, "It was exactly like said it was, but stranger."  
  
The others opened their books and the same thing happened with them. Worrying if the books did anything at all, both David and Lan searched their wrists to notice that a ring of light appeared as they touched them. The books had worked their magic, and now, Jon and his friends had the power which they were looking for. Now all that was left was to look for Balmung and Helba. Everybody logged off to do some searching for either person but turned up nothing, until they checked their mail. Helba had written them, with some tips on how to use the bracelet. Had Helba watched them as they received the books or as they opened them, obtaining the bracelet? Lan suggested that everyone split up, searching different servers. Lan, Kelly, and Jasmine, searched the Delta server while Jon and David searched Theta server. Few clues were found about Helba and there seemed no trace of Balmung for weeks. One day, David logged off for a while and when he checked his mail, there was a letter from someone that he had spoken with earlier in the day. The letter mentioned that Balmung was spotted in Lambda server. As David tried to go to the server, he was denied entry. He decided to mail everybody about how the server was off- limits. Everybody met at Theta root town of Dun Lorieag to talk.  
  
"That's strange that you weren't let in Lambda server, because I was there weeks ago before we started our searching," Jon surprised by the news, "Maybe the system administrators have found out about the virus and are trying to contain it."  
  
"What good will that do," Jasmine asked, "Since this an on-line game, a virus could attack all the servers even if access is restricted."  
  
"Who knows why it's restricted but we need to get there to find out about Helba," Lan pointed out.  
  
"Maybe Kite knows something about this," David suggested, "I'll call him and see if he can help."  
  
"No need," a voice was behind them. It was the mysterious boy Kite, and some others with him. A female heavy blade and wavemaster, "These are my friends BlackRose," motioning to the heavy blade, "and Mistral. They've been helping me get around in 'The World'. So why were you guys going to call me?"  
  
"Something's wrong with the servers, I met you in Lambda server weeks ago," Jon said, "but for some reason, we can't access it anymore."  
  
"That's the very reason, I came to see you."  
  
"Jeez, Kite, you call me because you said that these people could help us out but they're good for nothing," BlackRose screamed into Kite's ear.  
  
"Hey, back off bitch," Jasmine yelled out," You can't do anything just like we can't."  
  
"Come on," Kelly said, "calm down you two. It won't solve anything to fight over it."  
  
"Actually, I came here to see if you had a certain item I could use," Kite hiding something.  
  
"You want items," David sounded surprised, "What item do we have that could help you."  
  
"Something called virus cores."  
  
"What do these items do?"  
  
"They can let me hack into the server or into protected areas."  
  
"Another power of your bracelet," Jon said to himself then turning to Kite, "How is that possible?"  
  
"The bracelet uses the cores to unlock the areas that are protected."  
  
"Well since you need them, I did find some a while back and I was wondering what the hell, these things did. Hey do any of you guys have any of these virus cores he's talking about."  
  
Kelly and Jasmine had a few and Jon only had two. He handed them to Kite, and everybody returned to the chaos gate. Kite took out some of the virus cores and attached them to his bracelet. The bracelet stretched out as if Kite were about to drain a monster then suddenly he disappeared through the chaos gate. He returned a minute later looking a bit drained himself.  
  
"The server should be open again for everyone to use," he sounded exhausted, "how did you get those virus cores anyway. I only got them through using Data Drain on data bug monsters"  
  
"Hey, yeah only Kite been only to get them from monster because of his bracelet," Mistral piped in.  
  
Jon and his friends knew they caught and know had to show Kite their secret. Each of them showed the ring of light on their wrists symbolizing they each had a bracelet.  
  
BlackRose pushed through Kite, "How the hell did each of you get a bracelet like Kite?"  
  
"We got it from Aura," Lan attempting to calm BlackRose, "She asked if we wished for this power and we accepted."  
  
"So she is ok," Kite sounding relieved at the news.  
  
"Yeah, I found her in a secret room about two months ago just before we met in Carmina Gadelica," Jon said.  
  
"Is she still there?"  
  
"I doubt it," Jasmine glaring at BlackRose, "after she gave us the bracelets, she vanished without a trace."  
  
"Yeah, haven't seen her since," Kelly said.  
  
"Can you tell us where saw Aura," BlackRose asked.  
  
"It wouldn't help you," Jon told her, "I checked that for that hole again after we got the bracelets, but it was gone, and I searched for it again for about an hour."  
  
"Kite, have you heard of a player named Balmung," Kelly asked him, "we've been looking for him for about two months."  
  
"I ran into him about a month ago," Kite said," He was in the Delta server."  
  
"That doesn't help us at all," David seeming frustrated, "I got the latest info on Balmung just recently."  
  
"Why are you looking for that bastard anyway," BlackRose seeming more pissed off than before.  
  
"Rumor has it he has info on Helba which we need," Jon said, "Helba seems to know everything about the bracelets and that we have them.  
  
"Wonder what so great about you guys that she has to have a constant tab on you," BlackRose said.  
  
"Yeah, we want know why too," Kelly said, "Thanks you Kite for opening the server for us."  
  
"Don't worry about it," Kite recovering a bit from the gate hacking, "I should thank you guys for the virus cores."  
  
Kite and his company took off. Jon and his friends went to the Lambda server in search of the elusive Balmung, and also the mysterious Helba. As they reached Carmina Gadelica it was strangely silent for such a popular server. It was either no one had noticed the server was open again or that going to Lambda was a trap set by someone. From where Jon was he could see that the shops were still open because he could see the lights coming out from them, but no one was in them. He turned around and noticed the grunty pen was empty.  
  
"This is a little too strange, even for this game," Jon reaching for his sword, "This server is supposed busy all the time."  
  
"Maybe we're the first to get here and people are just finding out," Kelly pointed out.  
  
"Or maybe we meant to come here but for the wrong reasons," Jasmine had a bad feeling standing by the chaos gate.  
  
"So, you managed to break through the protection set up," a loud voice was above everyone and when they looked up, they saw a man clad in blue armor, and had angel wings.  
  
Jon stood motionless for a second and the only thing he could utter was," Balmung of the Azure Sky." Chapter 4 End A/N: Ahh, next chapter is where my group squares off with Balmung. Please read and review this chapter becasue I won't post without knowing that people read this fanfic. LATES. 


	5. Chapter 5: Balmung Strikes

Disclaimer: I don't own .Hack and its characters. Don't sue me because of what I write.

Chapter 5: Balmung strikes, and Helba's offer  
  
The mysterious angel figure descended upon Jon and friends, with his sword ready to strike. He quickly slashed at Jasmine, but nearly missed because she jumped to the side. He landed and stood with his back facing the group, they all had their weapons drawn and stood to defend any attack.  
  
"What the hell is your problem Balmung," Jon screamed at the angel," Why are you attacking us?" "The only people who break through the protection that was set are people who have those strange bracelets that have been banned by the system administrators," Balmung then charged at Kelly and David. His first strike killed David instantly. David's body fell and was completely silent, "I must destroy all people who use the evil bracelet." Lan then charged at Balmung and swung her axe as hard as she could. The attack was stopped easily by smacking the axe away with his sword. He then struck the axe and beat it away from Lan's hands. He prepared to deal his deathblow when suddenly; a small fire stuck his hands. He was then blown back by Kelly's wind attack. Seeing who was doing this, Balmung charged at the mage with sword in hand. Jasmine and Jon stood in front of her as human shields, but Balmung's attack shattered Jasmine's blades. He then spun and sliced at Jasmine's neck. Right before the sword hit its mark, there was a deafening clang. Jon had stopped Balmung from attacking. Balmung's sword flew upward into the sky and hit the floor not far from him. Jon stood in shock that he had actually knocked away his sword. This was his mistake, because Balmung quickly retrieved his sword, and then attacked the closest target to him. Kelly healed the wounded while Jon attempted to hold Balmung at bay. Their swords clanged and they came face to face.  
  
"You have no reason to fight us," Jon attempting to calm him down," We didn't open up the server. A twin blade in red did."  
  
Balmung didn't want to here anything anyone had to say, he broke the deadlock and sliced Jon in the chest. Jon was severely injured in began bleeding from his wound. He looked at Balmung before clasping on the ground. Jasmine without any weapons went to begin healing Jon and try to revive David. Balmung continued his assault this time on the only one left that pose any real threat to him, Lan. She had just got to her axe and started charging toward Balmung again. Balmung quickly took flight, making it impossible for anyone to launch any melee attacks. Balmung then started using skills resembling water attacks, whirlpools started appearing underneath Kelly and Lan. The whirlpools then froze and giant icicles then shoot up into their bodies. This instantly killed Lan by one icicle jutting into her back and going through her body. The ice melted and then Lan's body lay motionless. Jasmine looked in horror as the ice melted, leaving Kelly seriously hurt and with cuts all over her body. She had finished healing Jon and he had started rising to his feet. There was still a scar from where Balmung had sliced him, but it had at least stopped bleeding. He ran to where Lan had died and grabbed her ax. He couldn't hold both his sword and the axe but, he thought of something else he could do with it. He handed Jasmine his sword.  
  
"My sword is strong enough that it won't be broken if stuck. Use it while I use Lan's ax." "What should I be doing," Kelly asked him. "If you've got a reviving skill then use it, if not then concentrate on keeping me and Jasmine alive while attacking Balmung when you can." "But while he's in the air you can't touch him with any weapon." "Fine then, you two use your strongest magic skills on him while I keep you two alive, and seeing that he's using water and ice, don't use water skills." "Gotcha," Jasmine and Kelly started aiming their skills to the sky.  
  
Balmung started throwing ice blocks toward Jon but, as the blocks almost hit, Jon turned and took the blow head on. After the ice was gone Jon had seemed fine like nothing hit him at all. There were some cuts but very minor, and they seemed like scratches to him. Balmung then summoned a giant whirlwind of ice, and after it subsided, Jon stood there, more energized then before. Balmung was then hit with many fireballs, and boulders. The skills were starting to take their effect on Balmung as he looked a little worn out. He landed in front of Jon and continued his melee attacks against him. Once again Balmung was hit again with fireballs and boulders. He stopped looking at Jon and charged at Jasmine and Kelly. Even though he looked weakened, he was as fast as ever. He was a blue and white blur. He would have gotten Jasmine, had it not been for the sword she was borrowing from Jon. Jasmine couldn't hold it well, but she managed to keep it in the way of Balmung's blade. She kept up with him for a while, but he was eventually to fast for her, and knocked the sword away from her. He pulled her close, embracing her even and stabbed her in the stomach with his sword. Blood gushed from her wound, and Jasmine died soon after Balmung removed his sword from the wound. Now it was only Jon, Kelly, and Balmung standing on the small bridge that led to the rest of the city. Everyone else was dead and there was no way to revive them.  
  
"So you're the last ones alive, you and your friends have been quite a challenge," Balmung sounding cocky yet surprised at the same time," I haven't this much trouble in a fight since the virus has started corrupting certain monsters in this game.  
  
The ghosts of Jon and Kelly's fallen friends rose from their bodies and they called out to them. This infuriated Jon, and he started to make a kamikaze charge at Balmung with Lan's ax raised high above his head. Right before he could hit Balmung with it, he threw the ax at Balmung and it only sailed by as Balmung easily avoided the ax. Kelly summoned a strong wind to blow Jon's sword toward him. The two weapons sailed by Balmung and he just jumped over them. As Jon's sword came back to him, he grabbed it and prepared to strike. Balmung held his ground until his body burst into flames, because Kelly was still attacking him. This threw off Balmung's concentration for only a second but it was all that was needed. Jon's sword cut through Balmung's armor and had made a cut into his side. Balmung reeled back from pain but regained his composure, but blood could be seen running down his leg. He charged at Jon and Jon stood still with his sword ready to defend any attack. As he reached Jon, Balmung side- stepped and sliced him in the back. The attack was devastating, and Jon was bleeding badly from the X shaped wound. He was able to stand and his knees wobbled a lot, like he was going to fall over. Balmung then charged at Kelly, but was stopped short by and earth attack by Jon. Balmung was surrounded by rocks and wasn't able to move anywhere. It only took about one minute for Balmung to break free of his stone cage, and continue toward Kelly. As he was about to swing his sword, he was frozen in place. At that moment, someone appeared. It was a woman in white who carried a strange wand with two rings around the top of it. She had long, blonde hair and most of her face was covered by a mask of some sort. She approached Balmung and then Jon.  
  
"You are a very foolish boy for challenging Balmung you know that," said the ominous woman. "Who...are...you," Jon asked. "You can barely stand, yet you still wish to know who I am and why am I here," the woman said," To calm you, I'll tell you who I am. I am Helba, the one you've been searching for, for the last three months. I am here because I wanted to see if you had what it takes to make a difference in this game."  
  
Jon could barely make out what she was saying and noticed behind her that Balmung and Kelly were reviving his friends. Helba then healed Jon enough so that he could stand upright easily.  
  
"Fear not for your friends, they are being taken care of," Helba acting too calm for Jon to feel secure," I am here, so what is it you wanted to know from me?" "My friends and I came here to ask you why you have been stalking us since we started playing this game." "I sensed you had something special in you and acquiring the bracelet, and your little showdown with Balmung here proved you do." "So, what do you want with me and my friends?" "I want you to help me destroy the virus that has corrupted 'The World'." "Why should we help you at all," Jasmine getting back to her feet," You just sent angel boy here to kill each of us." "She didn't intentionally send me here to kill you," Balmung looking angrily at Helba," she only told me that he people that were responsible for the virus would come here." "Oh did I really say that," Helba giving an evil grin, but really able to tell if it was evil because of her mask," I'm so sorry to deceive you like that." "Enough of this," Balmung storming away toward the chaos gate," I won't be used as someone's hit man." He stormed away, and disappeared through the chaos gate.  
  
"What was that about," David asked Lan. "Who knows, maybe Balmung fought us because we looked suspicious as we came through the gate," Lan equally surprised as anyone else. "He fought you because I told him the person responsible for the virus would be," Helba said," I thought Kite would show up but you five coming was even better." "Better how," Jasmine obviously pissed off," So you could a bird's eye view of us getting the shit kicked out of us?" "No, the fight showed you me that you five can work together efficiently, and that you have something that I can't put my finger on at this moment." "So, why are you watching us constantly," Jon asked, and what do you want from us?" "What I want is for you to help destroy the virus that plagues this world." "What makes you think that we would just follow you without question?" "Because I can tell you how get those comatose players out of their comas." "I think my friends and I need to think about this," Kelly told Helba," We'll get back to you before we'll willing go along with your plan." "Very well contact me when you have made up your minds," Helba floated away.  
  
Kelly and her friends logged off and decided to talk about the incident at school. They needed to decide on whether to call Kite, follow Helba, or try to search out Balmung once again. Balmung would be the last option being that he didn't listen to them the first time.

Chapter 5 End

A/N: I know Balmung kicks my team's ass, and without much effort put into it. I will have my revenge on Balmung in later chapters. Please r&r my work so I know to continue posting this story.


	6. Chapter 6: Trial of the Wavemaster

Disclaimer: I don't own .Hack or any of its characters or plot line. Don't sue me for what I write, just review my work.

A/N: Some people I have look at my work before putting it on FF.N told me I was concieted so I decided to write this chapter and my next one is like it. Enjoy for all those people who love the wavemaster class

Chapter 6: The Trail of the Wavemasters  
  
The next day only David, Jasmine, and Lan met after school.  
  
"Jon said he was busy, and Kelly said she felt sick," Lan worrying if it had anything to do with last night.  
  
"Did they say anything about Helba's offer," David asked.  
  
"Kelly, didn't want to talk about that, but Jon said he's willing to see what she has to say."  
  
"Until they get back I say we do some things on our own," Jasmine suggested," You know side stuff that doesn't have to do with Helba or the virus."  
  
"I found something on the board offering a challenge to all wavemasters," David said, "If you survive the dungeon then you win the chance to learn skills of the element of your choosing."  
  
"What is your strongest element or elements anyway, David?"  
  
"All I have right now is my wind tornado attack and one very weak darkness attack."  
  
"What about healing spells," Lan asked.  
  
"I have a reviving spell and a mid level healing."  
  
"Where did you get a reviving spell," Jasmine screamed at him.  
  
"A piece of armor I found about two weeks ago, too bad I couldn't use it in our fight with Balmung. I saw something that has a similar offer, but for heavy blades and heavy axmen."  
  
"Can you bring a friend to help you?"  
  
"Only wavemasters, that's the point of the challenge."  
  
"Alright, I guess we'll see you later David," Lan and Jasmine left.  
  
That night David, went to where the board had mentioned the challenge would be at. As he got there, he noticed that many other wavemasters where there. He spotted Mistral out of the bunch and walked up to her.  
  
"Hey there Mistral," he called out," So you heard about the skill challenge too?"  
  
"Yeah," she said," what self respecting wavemaster would pass up the chance to learn all the skills of one element of your choosing?"  
  
"How about we team up so we stand a better chance at beating this thing?"  
  
"Sure I don't mind teaming up with someone I know. What element are you currently best at using?"  
  
"I have a good wind attack, and a weak dark attack, how about you?"  
  
"I have some ok fire and water attacks other than that all I have is healing spells, and status recovery."  
  
"Any scrolls?"  
  
"No, I heard that part of the challenge is that scrolls can't be used and I put all mine away."  
  
"So how is this all supposed to work?"  
  
"I guess the administrator will come and send in teams one at a time, and after each team, the portals in each area are recharged."  
  
"Can you volunteer to go first?"  
  
"Doubt it, probably be a lottery."  
  
"Excuse, me," an NPC came along," are you two together?"  
  
"Yeah we are," David answered.  
  
"May I please have your names then?"  
  
"Chaosb1ade and Mistral."  
  
"Thank you, your number will be 73." The NPC moved along to the next group.  
  
"Oh, man," Mistral sounded depressed," there are at least 73 groups and probably a lot more."  
  
"I guess it just depends on how many teams they let attempt the challenge."  
  
"Daavvviiiiiidddddd," A voice called out to him," You thought you would go and do something just meant for our character class and not call me?"  
  
"Sorry Kelly," David surprised to she his friend," Lan said you were sick so, I decided you wouldn't want to try this."  
  
"Quick," Mistral cut in, "Call back that guy who took are names and see if we can add Sakura to our group."  
  
They called back the NPC David and Mistral had seen, and they managed to get Kelly into their group. Their number hadn't changed but the three mages sat in the field for about 30 minutes before a system administrator had come out to greet them.  
  
"Players," the thin man said," all of you are wavemasters come to compete for a great prize. The prize is the ability to permanently learn all of the attack and support skill for any element of your choosing. There are about 250 of you here today and about 100 groups, but only 20 groups will have the chance to compete. You were given a number by an NPC and there will a lottery to decide who will be allowed to enter this dungeon. There are certain rules to this challenge that you MUST take into account before you are allowed to enter. No scrolls shall be used, only your current magic and attacks skills may be used. Support, strengthening, recovering, and weakening skills may be used as long as you can keep casting them. All other items may be used, including any HP and SP recovering items, and revives. If any team is caught using a scroll or any illegal skill, they will be disqualified and ejected from the dungeon immediately."  
  
"I guess that means no bracelet usage," David whispered to Kelly.  
  
"Yeah, I guess we'll have to do this one the hard way," Kelly admitted.  
  
"We'll begin the lottery now. I will call out all the numbers first, and then those numbers will be shuffled again to decide the order of which the selected teams will enter. Remember your numbers, players."  
  
A cage appeared next the administrator, and it had many balls inside of it. The cage began to spin rapidly, and suddenly stopped after about one minute. The administrator drew 20 balls out of the cage.  
  
"The winning numbers are: 27, 16, 9, 39, 69, 73, 11, 30, 90, 95, 76, 83, 1, 66, 13, 47, 8, 80, 100, and 25."  
  
"Alright we're in," Kelly shouted.  
  
The other teams groaned and left after hearing the announcement. The number of players dropped drastically. There were enough players left to count them all. Including David's group there were 53 players left. The 20 selected numbers were placed into another cage and the new cage spun and after another minute stopped.  
  
"The team order will be: 16, 39, 100, 83, 25, 1, 27, 76, 11, 69, 9, 80, 8, 13, 30, 95, 73, 66, 90, and 47.  
  
"At least we're not first," David said.  
  
"Yeah but near the end, which I think is a bad thing," Mistral said.  
  
"One good thing is that we're a three person team unlike some of these guys," Kelly said.  
  
"Yeah I saw a person who came here by themselves," David mentioned.  
  
"That it makes it that much harder and that much more worth the prize," Mistral sounded ambitious.  
  
"But no one to heal you if you die," David pointed out.  
  
"Oh, I thought that all items would be blocked so I only brought my equipment, did any of you bring any SP recovering items," Mistral whimpered.  
  
"I got some after hearing about this challenge," Kelly said, "I got a lot of them."  
  
"Hey Sakura, what are you best skills," Mistral asked.  
  
"I got a new staff that came with some good lightning and earth spells, and I have some great fire skills."  
  
"I guess we wait till we're called," David said.  
  
They sat there for about an hour as teams were called and sent into the dungeon. After a while, the administrator came up to David.  
  
"Number 73, Chaosb1ade, Mistral, and Sakura, are you ready to attempt to beat the dungeon. I should mention to you, that only 3 teams before have finished this dungeon, no handicaps will given to you for higher level, level of your skills, or that you have three people in your group compared to some groups who have had two or even one persons. So, are you three ready?"  
  
"Yeah," all three of them said at once.  
  
"Then proceed. Just be sure to remember not to use any of scrolls once you are inside the dungeon, if you do you'll be disqualified."  
  
The three mages proceeded inside the dungeon, and it seemed easy enough. The battles had some rough spots but Kelly, David and Mistral got through them without much trouble. All seemed fine until the final level of the dungeon. All of the monsters on this level had resistances to all but one element. The three alternated on who would attack while the others strengthened, and healed any damage received. The hardest fights were against enemies that could only be hurt by dark attacks, because David was the only one with a dark skill but it was not as powerful as the other ones he had. By the time they had reached the last room, each of the three had their share of injuries and were starting to run low on recovery items. They had all their revives which was only 4 to start with, about 10 small and 5 full SP recovery items, and no more healing items. They reached the door with the purple haze, and stopped.  
  
"Let's rest for a bit to recover SP without items," Mistral suggested.  
  
"That's good," Kelly sounded exhausted, "I didn't think this last level would be so hard."  
  
"I know," David confessed," as long is this last monster isn't weak against darkness, we'll be fine.  
  
After resting for about five minutes, they entered the last room. The portal swirled around and a ghost like figure with a sword appeared. The ghost had no body to speak of, but the head of the ghost was visible. The most, well known feature of the head was its glowing yellow eyes that seemed to stare straight into the mages' souls. The fighting started as the ghost froze David in place with a wind spell. The spell did next to nothing except maybe cut David a bit, but nothing serious. As all three launched an attack, the spells bounced off, or did nothing. A golden shield surrounded the ghost as the spells hit it.  
  
"What type of skills did each of you use," Mistral asked.  
  
"I used fire," said Kelly.  
  
"Wind," said David," and you?"  
  
"I used fire too, what was that gold shield on it though, could have it been a clue on how to beat it," Mistral pointed out.  
  
They launched another volley of spells, this time around, Mistral threw icicles at it, David used his darkness spell, and Kelly threw a boulder. All but the boulder bounced off the shield. The boulder passed right through and hit the ghost right in the head. As she saw this, Kelly used her best earth attack, four stone slabs appeared around the ghost, trapping it inside the slabs, the slabs crashed into each other. But instead of damaging the ghost, the spell seemed to do nothing and a new, white shield glowed brightly.  
  
"What was that it was weak against earth but when I used the stone cage...," Kelly was shocked.  
  
"It did absolutely nothing and the color of its shield changed to white," David finished.  
  
At that moment the ghost started casting its own spell, but it wasn't a tornado like last time. This time, his spell consisted of a shadow appearing beneath everyone and then razor sharp teeth shooting out of the shadows.  
  
"I got it, use the element opposite of what it uses or the color of its shield," Mistral stated," Sakura use lightning on it now!!"  
  
Kelly sent a thunderstorm on the ghost frying the ghost for only a second but, then the shield changed color again, this time green. David used a wood skill that sent a huge tree straight into the ghost. The ghost seemed fazed by the attack and it retaliated with a fire attack. The fire was sent at Mistral and the fire started to burn her to a crisp. As the fire dissipated, Mistral's whole body was badly burned and she was unable to move. David and Kelly healed her as fast as they could, and after the healing, Mistral summoned a ring of ice blocks that surrounded the ghost. The blocks then crashed into the ghost all at once, freezing it in the process. As Mistral tried the attack again, the ghost's shield had changed yet again, this time back to gold. Kelly used her stone cage again, this time the skills crushed the ghost, and changing the shield, red.  
  
"Mistral," Kelly called," Do you have any fire skill that does all its damage at once like that icicle attack?"  
  
"Yeah , do any of you have similar skills," Mistral asked.  
  
"Yeah, I got one that sets an enemy ablaze," Kelly said, "on the count of three then."  
  
"One...two...three!!!" At that moment, Kelly and Mistral fire skills hit at once turning the ghost to ashes.  
  
After the fight, everyone took some time to calm down before heading to the next room. After about five minutes they continued on, and in the next room, there was a strange statue, with a man in front of it.  
  
"Ah good, you have made it past the shapeshifter," said the strange man," Congratulations you have passed the trial of the wavemaster. You shall receive your prize now."  
  
"All right," David cheered," Is it true that we will learn all the skills of a certain element depending on what I choose?"  
  
"That is correct, all you need to do is approach the statue, and when prompted choose which element you wish to master."  
  
The three mages approached the statue and it asked them which element they would like to learn like the strange man had told them. David chose Darkness being that he only had one weak dark skill, Kelly chose to master water and ice, while Mistral chose wood. All three of their bodies floated suddenly, and each glowed with the color of the element they chose. Their minds were suddenly flooded with the knowledge of their element. After about minute, their bodies returned to the ground, and they returned to normal.  
  
"That was messed up," David said," It felt like my mind was consumed by darkness.  
  
"Mine felt like it was frozen then I felt like I was underwater," Kelly said.  
  
"All I felt was a cool breeze and surrounded by trees," Mistral said.  
  
"Do you two feel like you know the skills," David asked.  
  
"I think," Kelly was unsure," but I would have to try it out to be sure."  
  
As the three got back to Carmina Gadelica, it was strangely empty, and no one was around. For the server just being opened up again no one was in sight, even the shop NPCs were missing.  
  
"I guess we should get going being that no one is here," David said as he went toward the chaos gate.  
  
"Alright see you later Cb1ade," Mistral said as golden rings overlapped her body and she was gone.  
  
"Maybe we should mail everybody about this and tell them we're ready to go see Helba anytime," David said.  
  
"I don't know," Kelly said, "I'm just not sure we should trust someone who has set us up in the past."  
  
"We'll call everyone and talk about this, ok?"  
  
The two left and tried mailing everyone but few responded. Only Jasmine responded to the mail saying that Lan and Jon were already logged in and doing their own side quests. One could only wonder what these quests would be.

End

A/N: I know the skills I have described have names to them but since I don't know the exact names, I don't want to try and guess. I'm playing .Hack/Quarantine right now so I will try to get the names soon. Review my stuff so I know to keep writing it.


	7. Chapter 7: Heavy Class Tournament

Disclaimer: I don't own .Hack or Soul Calibur. Don't sue me.

Chapter 7: Heavy Class Tournament  
  
While David and Kelly were off learning their new skills, Jon checked the board and noticed that a new thread had appeared on the board titled, "Heavy Class Tournament". The opening post read:  
  
"To all Heavy Blade and Heavy Axeman players. Test your skills against other players to see who the best heavy class player is around. If you wish to compete for this title, come to the field of Theta Silent Deadly Battlefield. Makes teams of only two if you wish to have a partner, but no more. If wish to know more come to the field, and the event will begin at 8PM."  
  
Jon called Lan and told her of the tournament. He thought they had a good chance of winning, because they had a lot of experience from searching for Balmung. Combined they had a total level of 108. Jon had many attack skills at his disposal, but many of them were strengthening and weakening skills. When he logged in, Jon saw that Lan was waiting for him and ready to go. They each had prepared a little for what might happen at this tournament. Theta Silent Deadly Battlefield was a field that was very strange at first. It was a little dark with scattered torches on pillars, but it was raining too, which in this game was common, but still strange. As they walked around, Lan spotted a structure in the distance, it seemed to look like an arena. As they got closer, Jon could tell that it was an arena, and that few people were going to it.  
  
"Strange that even though a tournament being held here, not many people are showing up," Jon sounding confused.  
  
"Maybe most of the contestants got here early to scope out their competition," Lan cheering him up.  
  
As they walked inside, they noticed that, not many people had showed up at all. At first glance, there seemed to be only about 15 or so players. Some looked like pairs and others not. Jon and Lan sat in an area on the stadium, and looked around. Most players were checking their equipment, to be sure that they were ready. At this point though, if they weren't ready then, they would never win, and Jon knew that. During their wait, someone came by and asked if they were a pair or two solo players. The person took down there names and told them the event would begin soon. When it got to be 8, a man in a green tunic, and long brown pants appeared in the center of the fighting ring. He called everyone to attention.  
  
"Greetings to you all. This tournament is about proving to yourselves that you the best Heavy classed character of all. Or in some cases, the best team of heavy classed characters. I shall now explain the rules and how the brackets will work out. As you came into the arena, the order in which you came was recorded. The first person to come in shall fight the last to show, the second person against the second to last and so on. There are only 16 groups here today, some are solo players, and others are groups. There will be no handicap set for someone fighting a pair by themselves. The rules stands as such: Your mission in each fight is to render your opponent(s) unable to continue fighting that includes killing your opponent if you wish. No skills other than attack skills may be used, that includes strengthening, weakening, and magic skills. All items except scrolls and strengthening items may be used, the point of this tournament is to see how well you as a fighter are, not enhancing yourself to beat anyone. If anyone is caught breaking these rules, that person and their partner will be disqualified. Does anyone have any questions, if not let the tournament begin."  
  
"Hey what do we win anyway," a player called out from the crowd.  
  
"You shall win a free weapon that is level 99, and has the best attack strength in the whole game. A prize fit for the best."  
  
The brackets had Jon and Lan fighting people in pairs, and wouldn't fight any solo players until late in the tournament. One pair that Jon had found surprising, was one that included BlackRose, and an axeman named Piros. Lan and he would have to fight them in the second round if they both won.  
  
The first round match was simple enough for Jon and Lan. Their opponents were new players that were hoping to get some quick experience and thought they were better than they really were. Jon easily killed his opponents, even when he didn't mean to kill. Lan used the blunt side of her ax and KO'ed the other person in one hit. They were declared the winners, but to them it felt like they hadn't won.  
  
"Guess it luck of the draw," Jon sounding disappointed.  
  
"I guess," Lan sounded confused, "If this is supposed to be a tournament for the greatest players, why would noobs come?"  
  
"Who knows and who cares at this point?"  
  
Ten minutes later, an announcement was made saying that the first round had ended and to check the new standings. When Jon saw who he and Lan were up against he got anxious to get back into the ring. Blackrose had won, and they would be the next opponents. On the way to tell Lan, he ran into he next opponent, the giant bodied Piros.  
  
"Hark, how fair you he of glowing eyes," Piros had the voice of a wimp.  
  
"Huh," Jon puzzled at first," Who are you talking to."  
  
"To thou, glowing eyes. I wish you good luck in your next contest."  
  
"Don't you know, my friend and I are your next opponents."  
  
"Then I shall fight thee on the battlefield, may fortune come to us all."  
  
"Yeah, whatever, dude," as Jon walked away, "Psycho."  
  
Jon and Lan went to the fighting ground, and Blackrose was waiting for them.  
  
"Ahh, you guys again," Blackrose annoyed," How come no matter where I seem to go, you seem to keep popping up. I came to this tournament to get away from you guys."  
  
"Nice to see you too Blackrose," Jon said.  
  
"Where's your partner anyway," Lan asked, "It's almost time to begin."  
  
"Damn that idiot, I leave him alone for one second and he takes off," Blackrose yelling at herself, "Hey ref, you mind if I go get my partner."  
  
"Very well, but you have only 5 minutes before I consider him out and you a solo player."  
  
"Fine," Blackrose running, "I'll be back to kick your asses."  
  
After about two minutes, Blackrose returned with Piros. She seemed pissed off and ready to get this fight over with.  
  
The ref started the battle and Blackrose charged wildly at Lan. She had her sword high in the air and ready to strike. She missed with her first slash and the second Lan blocked easily. All the mental preparation made for this fight went away, because Blackrose just started swinging wildly. Lan blocked or avoided all of Blackrose's attacks, and after about 3 minutes saw her opening and hit Blackrose clean in the side. Blackrose stopped and clenched side. Blood started coming out from the wound, but she kept up her assault. Without thinking what she was doing, Blackrose just swinging, hoping she would hit someone. Piros charged at Jon, but Jon was simply to fast for the giant. Before Piros could even make a move toward swinging his ax, Jon slashed at his armor five times. For having such a child like face, Piros had the strength of many people, and Jon felt it as he blocked Piros' attack. Jon was sent backward all the way back to the wall of the arena. Jon kept up his attack and eventually broke off Piros' chest plate. Jon moved back and held his sword in front of him, and the blade started to glow. After the blade became a solid white, Jon thrust the sword straight at Piros' chest. Piros was shocked by the electricity charged in the blade, and collapsed, paralyzed from the attack. Blackrose was still swinging her sword with no real accuracy, and was lucky if Lan had to guard herself. Lan swung her ax in an upward and suddenly there was a loud clang. The next moment Lan spun her ax around and cutting Blackrose in two.  
  
"Winners, Enigma and Lina."  
  
The third round wasn't as hard as it was made out to be, because their opponents hadn't had much time to recover. Jon took out one of them with one punch to his opponent's wounds. Lan only needed to swing her ax at the guy she was fighting, and the strike broke the guy's sword, and killed him instantly. After the battle, Jon checked the standings, only to find that it was the final round already. Lan and his opponents had won his matches as easily as they had. The strangest thing about this guy is that he was a solo player. He had to be powerful to beat certain teams that Jon knew were good. He started to worry if Lan and he could stand a chance against this guy. He hadn't received any kind of injury, and in fact had not been hit once. The only thing Jon did know about this guy was his name, Nightmare.  
  
After 10 minutes of rest the final match began, and the guy they were fighting, was completely covered in silver and black armor. There was no place on the guy's body that there was no armor. The only things could be seen was an eerie red glow coming from his eyes. He was a heavy blade character whose sword looked like it was alive. Lan charged forward along with Jon, and when they tried to attack the strange man, but when their blades came close to him, Jon was unable to move his sword any farther, and was frozen in place. Lan had blown back by the guys swinging his strange sword. Nightmare turned to face Jon and the glow in his eyes became much brighter and more sinister. From what could be seen in the face, it seemed like he was grinning. He swung his sword at Jon's head, and there was a loud clang. Jon had somehow moved again and blocked the attack, but it sent him into the wall of the arena. There was a hole in the wall where Jon had hit it, and when he emerged, his right arm seemed broken and badly injured. Nightmare had stood still after the attack, and waited while Jon healed himself and stood next to Lan.  
  
"I think the only way we're going to hurt or even hit this guy is if we use attack skills," Jon said.  
  
"I gotcha," Lan said.  
  
Jon sword started to glow white as he charged Nightmare and Lan's ax started glowing black. They both charged Nightmare again this time when Jon swung his sword the blade went through, and struck Nightmare in the side and shocking him at that spot. At the very same time, Lan's axe struck him in the shoulder, causing a strange shadow to ripple throughout Nightmare's body. He howled in pain and staggered backward a little. He swung his sword at Jon again, causing Jon to skid backward toward the wall again. Jon could tell Nightmare was weaker by the force of his blow. Jon charged at Nightmare again but time his sword glowed a very light blue while Lan distracted Nightmare. Jon stabbed Nightmare in his sword and it instantly froze and ice surrounded the entire arm up to the shoulder. Lan took swipes at Nightmare's neck to quickly end the fight, but the armor plating there was harder than the other armor. Jon used his ice attack on the helmet of Nightmare and froze it along with the neck armor. Nightmare started to become enraged and tore off all the frozen pieces of armor on the ground. He even smashed his frozen arm into the ground just to get the ice off it, but to no avail, because the ice was too thick. Nightmare's sword arm remained frozen in ice, and was unable to bend it. He threw the frozen arm about hitting Lan in the stomach and using it as a shield from Jon's sword. His face was normal except for the bloodshot eyes that seemed to glow when he had his helmet on. Lan used her Ani Tornado attack and struck Nightmare right in the neck. One could see the darkness flow from the ax into Nightmare's body and he kicked her away leaving the ax still in his neck. Blood began to ooze out of the wound and Night mare began to stagger and lose his balance. Nightmare made one final lunge at Jon by swinging his frozen arm at him. Jon easily avoided the attack and watched as Nightmare laid there and died. Jon shook the ax free from Nightmare's neck and handed it back to Lan.  
  
Minutes later, the administrator walked up to Jon and presented him with a sword that looked vaguely familiar to the one he was using already, but this one was much more powerful and it had strange markings on the blade. Lan was given a larger ax than what she was used to using, but this one had stronger skills and more power behind each swing. They logged off and when Lan checked her mail she noticed one from David and she told Jon to meet her at Dun Lorieag.  
  
Chapter 7 End  
  
A/N: I know I used Soul Calibur's Nitemare to make the villain of this chapter but I think it was a good thing to do. That and I hate Piros so that's why I gave him his corny dialog but with even more corny lines. Next chapter is my chapter with Jasmine being I'm making a chapter for all my characters. I will be done with it by Monday now that school is over for me.


	8. Chapter 8: The Angelic Romance

Disclaimer: I don't own .Hack or anything about it. Don't sue for what I write though.  
  
A/N-WARNING: To all who love my fanfic, this chapter will be much different than my previous ones. This chapter was requested by my friend Jasmine. She wanted to have a sappy, romance chapter with Balmung and herself. This is for you Jasmine, and for anyone who wants to get right back to action sequences, skip to my next chapter.  
  
Chapter 8: The Angelic Romance  
  
Prologue to chapter 8  
  
Back in chapter 5 Balmung fought with Jasmine and her friends. During the fight Balmung shattered Jasmine's twin ninja swords, and eventually killed her. This chapter is taking place at the same time as chapters 6 and 7, so all the characters had a chapter to themselves. The story picks up as Jasmine is walking through Mac Anu.  
  
Chapter 8  
  
As Jasmine searched Mac Anu she felt as if someone was watching her. She was searching for someone who could give her some new weapons being that her last ones were broken. She cursed Balmung under her breath for doing that and killing her afterward. Thinking about this made her realize the way in which Balmung had killed her. He had grabbed her and in a way hugged her before killing her, which for some reason never sat right with her. Just way he had hugged, in a way it seemed like an affectionate, loving hug. Had Balmung hugged her because he had something for her or was it to throw off her guard? At that moment Jasmine heard a noise behind her, and as she turned around she noticed two objects that caught her attention. One was a set of brand new twin blade swords, very powerful ones at that, Jasmine took them and sheathed them in her shoulder sheaths. The other object was the most surprising to her, a white feather. Jasmine shifted her head upward only to see the strange sky that the game provided, and nothing else. It was one thing that she found the new swords, which was a very rare occurrence in "The World", but to find the feather was another for her. She began to think of Balmung again and if he was the one who gave her the swords and if he was watching her. She decided to log out and check the message board. Nothing caught her eye, but she had to be sure of something. She posted a new thread asking players to notify her if anyone saw Balmung, either through email or the board. Being only two servers were open to players, she figured the search wouldn't take long.  
  
After a few hours, Jasmine checked her mail to see that only three people had mailed her, two were her friend, Jon and Kelly. Each email told her that they would be busy for a while and that they would unavailable for about another couple of hours. The last one caught her eye because it was from Balmung himself. The message was for her to meet him in Mac Anu, but the message had been sent soon after she posted her thread, and hours before she checked her mail. She checked the board only to see that many had spotted Balmung sitting in Mac Anu like he said he would. The last post though said that he had taken off, but he had left a message for the player Darkangel with the recorder. She quickly logged in and ran straight to the recorder. After quick player verification, the message was given to her. Balmung's message was that he needed to see her and that he would wait for her at Delta Secret Hidden Fort Walls. She quickly went to the chaos gate to enter to enter the specified field but when she tried to enter, she was rejected. It was a protected field that she figured was for privacy from anyone trying to get in touch with Balmung. It was simple to hack through, probably because he knew that only Jasmine, her friends, and Kite could open the field. It only took one virus core to hack the gate and Jasmine was suddenly floating through the gate. She was guided by her bracelet through what seemed like a different world between the fields. The bracelet started to fade and Jasmine saw where to exit this other world. As she entered the field, she didn't know why Balmung chose this field to meet her. It was seemed to be stuck at sunset; the sun of the field was stuck where it was. It made the whole sky seem beautiful and the ground was covered in flowers. Jasmine thought this was a little too strange for Balmung, because he was a hot head who didn't listen to them the last time they met. After walking for a while she saw a trail of white feathers, and she knew they were Balmung's angel feathers. She followed the trail until she saw a figure in the distance. It was Balmung and he was waiting by what seemed to be a lake.  
  
"So you have come," Balmung turned to face Jasmine.  
  
"What do you want with me," Jasmine asked, "First you smash my blades to dust, then hug and kill me, now you're stalking me? What do you want?"  
  
"I needed to see you Angel. Come closer."  
  
"What is with you, you freak."  
  
"For some reason, I feel something whenever I'm around you. I can't explain it, but when I look into your eyes, I feel complete."  
  
"So what your saying is?"  
  
"I believe that I'm falling for you Angel."  
  
"For one thing, the name's Darkangel, and I pretty much hate you right now."  
  
"Is this about that fight earlier?"  
  
"Of course. How could I ever love a man, who killed me?"  
  
"I'm really sorry for that," he began to move closer toward Jasmine, "During that fight I began feeling what seemed like love."  
  
"So that's why you hugged me before you STABBED ME IN THE STOMACH!!!!!!!"  
  
"But if you hate, and despise me, why have you come here?"  
  
"I came to..," she stopped mid-sentence, "I don't know why I came."  
  
"You came because you secretly love me too." Balmung hit his mark, "That is why you were so surprised I killed you isn't it?"  
  
"I admit that I felt something when I first saw you. And of course I was surprised you killed me, you hugged me which made me think you did love me."  
  
"That's because I do, and I want you to love me too."  
  
"How do you know this is how I really look?"  
  
"Just something I saw in you, that made me think you would use your own face."  
  
"Fine you made one good guess, what else do you know about me," Jasmine started to warm up to him."  
  
"You are a bit of a hot-head like me, but you can be caring when you want to be," Balmung came closer to the point where he could touch Jasmine.  
  
"So you know a lot about me because I'm a lot like yourself is that it?"  
  
"That, and I could see it in your face and actions with your friends, or did you forget that I was stalking you," he reached out and stroked Jasmine's arm.  
  
"Even though I know that you didn't touch my real arm, it's still strange."  
  
"You still feel the butterflies in you stomach right? You still ask questions inside you head, right?"  
  
"Yes, but I don't know the answers to these questions, and what the best is."  
  
"Then let yourself accept the answer from the heart, not from the head." He moved closer.  
  
"I'm not sure if I could...," she was cut off.  
  
Balmung embraced her before she could finish her answer, and kissed her. Jasmine was surprised at first but then lost herself in the moment. The two stood there in an affectionate embrace. They were locked together passionately for what seemed like an eternity to them. Unknown to Jasmine, Balmung had started using his wings and after their kiss she noticed she was off the ground. Balmung took them over the lake nearby, while still holding Jasmine in his arms.  
  
"Are you crazy you stupid angel?"  
  
"I might be for falling for you."  
  
"At least the scene is very romantic. You must have put a lot of time into this."  
  
"I had just to show how much I care about you."  
  
"How come you put the protection for this field anyway? Was it to make sure that no one would interfere with us?"  
  
"That was the exact reason, so no body in the world could keep us from having this moment."  
  
"To think, the angelic knight and the Darkangel in love together. Some would think it's fate."  
  
"It is fate that brought you here to me and it's fate that we spend our lives together. Not just in this game, but in the real world too."  
  
"Oh, Balmung, I want this moment to last forever."  
  
The moment lasted but a second, but they were together for hours. The two lay in the grass together, when their silence was broken by the chime of an email message. It was from Kelly and David. They had written saying that they were ready to go see Helba and talk about her offer.  
  
"Is that your friends?"  
  
"Yes, they want me to go see them."  
  
"What is it you want though?"  
  
"I better go see them, when should we meet again my love?"  
  
"I'll mail you, or you contact me when you have the chance."  
  
"Very well, I shall see you when I can." Jasmine disappeared from the field with a depressed look on her face.  
  
"The angelic knight, in love with the Darkangel," Balmung chuckled to himself, "Perhaps it is fate that draws me to her."  
  
Chapter 8 End  
  
A/N: I know this stuff is very mushy being that my other chapters have so much action in them with this one having none. I only did this because my friends asked me to and since I thought give a shot at writing romance. That and I got paid for doing this. Nothing beats cold hard cash (). If you think it sucks then whatever, otherwise just go on to chapter 9 and just forget I ever wrote this. Leave reviews if you want, but don't shoot me for trying something new. LATES people. 


	9. Chapter 9: The Reality of Death

Disclaimer: I don't own .Hack.

A/N: Sorry to all those who hate my last chapter and I promise to keep the romance stuff to a minimun, This fanfic is mostly action so don't give me bad reviews just because of that. That and if you feel my rating should put up to R then tell me and if I recieve enough reviews saying so, I will change it. I know my language used makes it borderline R-PG13.

Chapter 9: The Reality of Death  
  
As Jasmine returned to Mac Anu from her "meeting" with Balmung, she noticed that none of her friends were around. She cursed them for having brought her away from her love. She mailed each of them saying that she would be waiting for them. It wasn't long after she sent the messages that everyone started to appear. When everyone got there they began to talk about the offer Helba had made to them.  
  
"Hey Jasmine," Jon said," You sounded angry in you mail."  
  
"Hey come one," Jasmine said," I wasn't that mean was I?"  
  
"Let me rephrase it then," said David," 'I'm here because you all wanted me here, and none of you are here. Bet here soon or I'm going back to what I was doing.' That sounds a bit mean."  
  
"So, I was busy anything wrong with that?"  
  
"Busy with what," Lan asked.  
  
"None of your guys' business."  
  
"And she said she wasn't being mean," Kelly whispered to Jon.  
  
"I'm not being mean, so what about Helba. Are we going to work for her or not?"  
  
"No way," Kelly shouted," I say we never work for that woman."  
  
"I agree with Kelly on this," Lan said," We just can't work for someone who is as mysterious as she is."  
  
"But she's the only one who really knows anything about the bracelet and what it can do," Jon said.  
  
"She may know what the bracelet can do, but we know someone else who knows a good amount about it," Kelly said.  
  
"You mean Kite," David said, "but he relies on Helba to much as we'll need to eventually."  
  
"Guess we're in a tie with Jasmine left to say what we do."  
  
Lan knew what would get everyone to change their minds, "Lets not forget that Helba sent Balmung after us, or should I say she sent him to take out whoever came through the gate."  
  
"Didn't think of that," Jon realized, "Helba could send us off on some mission to kill a player that she says is someone who is a problem and helping the virus but is really someone fighting it."  
  
That changed everybody's mind about Helba and decided that they would not accept her offer to work for her. Jon contacted her and told her to meet them in Dun Lorieag. Jon and his friends sat in the root town of ' server for about two hours before the strange woman showed herself.  
  
"I hope I didn't keep you waiting," Helba said.  
  
"You did, you bitch," Jasmine shouted.  
  
"My, what a temper on this one, you act just like that angel boy, Balmung."  
  
"You used him to get to Kite, but instead got us, we won't let you use us the same way, you whore."  
  
"That was an unfortunate turn of events, and for that, I apologize."  
  
"We just came to say that we would never follow you because of your methods of contact and past actions," Kelly said.  
  
"In other words, screw you bitch," Jasmine shouted.  
  
"That is fine," Helba surprisingly calm afterward," I see you wish to find things out for yourselves, and I saw be here waiting for you, should you need help," she walked up to Jasmine, "And as for you, little dark angel, they say the dark angel will only bring about disaster to all that come in contact with her."  
  
Helba floated into the air and vanished. Her remark got Jasmine thinking about what Helba could have meant. Had she meant that Jasmine would bring disaster to her friends, or did it mean that Helba knew about her and Balmung?  
  
"Yo Jasmine," Jon snapped her out of her trance," What's with you, we're asking you about what we do now and how we're supposed to look for clues as to either Skieth or Aura."  
  
"Why do you want to see Aura again," Jasmine asked.  
  
"If we can't get answers from Helba about how these bracelets work, then we'll get them from the one who gave us the bracelet."  
  
"I need to go," Kelly said," I'll search for anyone who knows anything about Aura. Bye-bi," her body disappeared behind gold rings.  
  
"One thing we could do also is to help other players that are threatened by the virus," David said.  
  
"That would get ours names out there and people on our side," Lan said.  
  
"And someone we save might know something about Aura," Jon pointed out.  
  
"I'll go check the board for any new posts about data bugs or Skieth," Jasmine left.  
  
After about an hour Jasmine returned saying that there had been some attacks from a horned monster throughout the whole ' server. Jon called Kelly and told her that he and the others were going to start searching the whole server for Skieth. Jon and David searched one dungeon, while Jasmine and Lan searched another. Their searching was starting to prove useless because for about a two whole weeks, Kelly and her friends searched many dungeons throughout the ' server. Each dungeon proved to have nothing special in them except other players that told them they had either seen nothing or knew nothing more than they did. One month after the search had started, Jasmine got an email from someone she had helped saying that she had seen a figure resembling Skieth in the dungeon of Theta Frozen Deadly Devil. Jasmine called everyone and they meet at the field.  
  
"What a field name for Skieth to be at," Kelly sounded a bit scared.  
  
"Yeah the name describes his actions against everybody who he has encountered," David said.  
  
"Do you guys think we stand a chance at beating him," Lan asked.  
  
"We won't know unless we try to kill him," Jon said, "Lets head down to the dungeon."  
  
They passed through the field and as soon as they entered the dungeon, an image of Skieth appeared in front of them and seemed to stare at them. It looked exactly like Skieth, but this one didn't attack them but just seemed to stare at Jon. As they reached the bottom of the dungeon everyone's bracelet started to glow brightly. They thought that the bracelet had sensed the bracelet that Skieth possessed. As everyone approached the purple haze, they checked their equipment to make sure they were ready for anything, be it data bug or Skieth. The next room made everybody like they weren't in the same dungeon anymore. It felt like they were transported to the next room, and everything was different than the dungeon they were in. They seemed to be on a floating island surrounded by patches of different scenery. As everyone got their bearings, they noticed that only one thing was there waiting for them. It was Skieth and he seemed to be staring at Jon and only Jon. He pointed his staff at the group then attacked with blinding speed. Before anyone could do anything, Skieth had closed in and slapped Lan with his wand. The attack left her nearly dead, and with her left arm broken.  
  
"Jasmine stay back and heal everyone that needs to be," Jon yelled to her, "We need David and Kelly to cast their highest skills to weaken him."  
  
"What will you be doing during this," Lan asked him.  
  
"Once Skieth finds out who's hitting him with spells, he'll go after our mages. I stay and protect them."  
  
"Alright, but I give no guarantees if he comes near me," Jasmine said.  
  
David, Kelly, and Jon bunched up near the center of the battlefield, and the two wavemasters started casting spells. Skieths body burst into flames while skulls rained down on him. Lan rushed him and stuck Skieth in the head with her ax. The blade dug into one of Skieth's horns, but it didn't come off. Skieth retaliated by slamming his wand into the ground creating a shockwave effect, which severely damaged Lan. Skieth was about to deal the death blow to Lan when his body became a solid block of ice while tree branches converged around Skieth's body shattering the ice. Skieth glared at where the two mages were and teleported to them. As he appeared in front of them, he raised his wand, and as it came down it was stopped in mid-swing. Jon stopped the wand with his sword, and was using all his strength just to keep from being overpowered. He yelled at David and Kelly to run to a new spot on the map. Skieth broke away from the weapon deadlock and teleported to an empty spot of the field. He raised his wand above him and it started to glow. He then threw the wand into the center of the field. A red glow appeared underneath everybody and after about five second, the red glow became a flame pillar that enveloped each player. After the flames died down only Kelly, David, and Jasmine were left standing, and fairly damaged. David started reviving Lan and Jon while Jasmine attacked Skieth head on. As she got near him, a ring of light started emitting from Skieth's wrist. Jasmine instantly backed away from him, and yelled out something that no one else could hear. The ring of light became Skieth's bracelet and it started shooting out data drain attacks in all different directions. All of the attacks missed but put the fear of the data drain in everyone's mind. Skieth lowered his arm but the bracelet did not fade away, showing he could use data drain anytime he wanted. David finished reviving Lan and Jon, and Lan charged toward Skieth again, this hacking off the horn she hit last time. The large horn hit the floor and started melting into the floor. Skieth howled in pain from the attack and teleported away from anybody. When he reappeared his body was hit with a series of ice and darkness attacks that Kelly and David launched. Skieth raised his arm and fired a data drain straight at them. Both of the wavemaster barely dodged the attack, and quickly hit Skieth again with more spells.  
  
"Everyone get out of here," Jon yelled, "Anyone that Skieth sees as a threat he'll use data drain on. I'll cover everybody's escape."  
  
"What about you," Jasmine said, "We won't leave you to die here."  
  
"Either you guys leave now, or we all die."  
  
As Jon said this, Skieth raised his arm and fired another data drain attack at Kelly. She couldn't maneuver away from it and cringed in fear. After a few seconds, Kelly noticed that there was another scream other than her own. She opened her eyes to see that Jon had sacrificed himself for her. The data drain attack pierced through his body and started to sap Jon's strength. He yelled at her to go before Skieth could finish him off. Everyone was too shocked to move and just stared at the sight of their friend dying. Jon's bracelet began to glow brightly and moved in front of the data drain. It looked like the bracelet was absorbing the data drain, but since no one knew what the bracelet could do; it was anyone's guess as to what was happening. As the attack finished, Jon's body hit the floor and started to fade away. Before it completely faded, his body started to flicker in and out. Kelly and David tried to drag his body away before Skieth could finish to job, but it proved to be no use.  
  
"He told us to run, and he just sacrificed himself for you Kelly," Jasmine said, "I say we do what he said and leave while we can."  
  
"But he's not dead, he's still here," Lan protested, "his body isn't completely gone, so that means he's alive."  
  
"Do you want to end up like him," David asked, "If not, then let's get out of here."  
  
Before everyone left they noticed that Jon's sword lay near his body and Lan ran and took it. Skieth fired another data drain but his aim had gotten worse and the attack wasn't anywhere near anyone. They all looked back at Jon to see that, his body had disappeared behind golden rings. This showed that he had either logged out or escaped from the dungeon. Skieth looked up as Jon disappeared and with that everyone did. Helba had been floating in the air and her strange staff was glowing and the glow had faded as everyone saw her.  
  
"Your friend should be fine, but I would take his advice and leave while you can," she said as she left from the field.  
  
Everybody logged off and immediately mailed Jon to see if he was ok. There was no reply, so everyone decided to wait till school to see if he fine. The next day at school, Jon hadn't showed up, and everyone started to get worried. The next day, Jon was still gone and everyone decided to go to his house to check on him. As they got there, they noticed that something was off. Each of them had a strange feeling that something had happened. As they approached the front door, Jon's parents came to meet them.  
  
"If you're here to see Jon, don't bother," said his dad.  
  
"What do you mean," Jasmine asked.  
  
"He hasn't been feeling well for the past couple of days."  
  
"Is he asleep right now," Lan asked.  
  
"Yeah, he's had a fever since Monday night."  
  
"Ok, if he gets up, tell him we came by," Kelly said. While they walked away, "Do you think he's...?"  
  
"He has to be another coma victim," Jasmine said.  
  
"Tonight we find Helba and ask her what the hell happened and how we can help Jon," David said.  
  
"But she said he would be fine," Kelly pointed out.  
  
"That's why we need to see her. If she said he'd be fine but he's not we need to ask her why he isn't."  
  
"She is the one who teleported him out of the field," Jasmine said," she should know what happened to him."  
  
That night they met in Dun Lorieag. Lan took out Jon's sword and stuck it in the ground as a memorial to Jon. Kelly and David chanted a spell so that no one could remove it, as to prevent thieves from taking his sword. They took off to search once again for Helba. They were on a new mission though, this time it was not only to prevent others from suffering the same fate as Jon, but to rescue Jon from his comatose state.

A/N: I had to make it so that one character dies at the hand of Skieth so there it is. I finished this chapter faster than the others bc of chapter 8. Leave reviews and I will have chap 9 up by next Friday. LATES people.


	10. Chapter 10: The Search for a Sign

A/N: I know I haven't submitted anything for a while, but my comp went haywire and I lost all of my writing except for what is here. So I had to hunt down people I gave hard copies to and I started to get some of them back. Here you go everyone, enjoy.

Chapter 10: The Search for a Sign  
  
Jasmine logged on and emailed Balmung about what had happened to her friend. He wrote back saying that it was unfortunate and that he would help in finding Helba in any way he could. Jasmine met with Lan later at Mac Anu to hear what Lan had to say about something she had heard.  
  
"Our worst fears have been confirmed about Jon," Lan said depressingly.  
  
"What do you mean," Jasmine asked.  
  
"I heard on the news that another person had fallen into a coma, and when they showed who it was, you can guess who it was."  
  
Jasmine lowered her head because she could do anything to help her friend or anyone else who was in a coma. An hour later, David and Kelly came and told them that they had seen the news report too, and wondered what Helba meant when she said that Jon would be alright.  
  
"I called some people I know to see if they've seen Helba lately and I'm just waiting for replies," Jasmine said.  
  
"She's not someone that anyone sees," Daivd pointed out, "We're lucky if she shows herself to us, much less anyone else."  
  
"What about Kite," Lan asked, "He said that Helba and him meet often and he gets email from her often."  
  
"But that mail is usually telling him how to use the bracelet and we got that mail too," Kelly said.  
  
"What about trying the message boards to find her," Jasmine asked.  
  
"It's better not to just put that we looking for Helba because she is a famous hacker that administrators aren't to fond of," David said.  
  
"I've seen some posts get deleted off the boards about some controversial issues," Lan said.  
  
"That must be to make sure that no one gets involved in these kinds of things," Jasmine said.  
  
"Why don't we go back to the dungeon were we fought Skieth," Jasmine brought up," It's not likely that Skieth will be there now and we can search for anything suspicious."  
  
They went back to the dungeon of Theta Frozen Deadly Devil. It was a fitting description for the monster Skieth. The demon who has been terrorizing "The World" and putting players into comas with the strange power of Data Drain. The field was strangely silent, nothing made any noise except the footsteps of Jasmine and her friends. As they reached the bottom level of the dungeon they noticed something was different about the whole layout of the dungeon. The map from their first visit was different from this time.  
  
"The administrators must have found out that Skieth was here and changed the layout so that no one could have found that room again," David stated.  
  
"But why change the whole layout and not just delete or alter that room," Jasmine said.  
  
"Either way, without that one room, anything that we could have found is gone for good," Kelly said.  
  
"I wouldn't say that it's good entirely," a calming voice said from behind them.  
  
Everyone turned around to see that Helba was standing behind them, with her strange scepter.  
  
"What are you doing here," Jasmine scowled at her.  
  
"I've come to examine this dungeon and what and see why Skieth chose here to wait," Helba grinned at them.  
  
"Have a nice time trying to find that room again, the whole layout was changed," Kelly told her," We've been here for hours and still can't find that room where Skieth was.  
  
"I can lead you there."  
  
"How can you do that," Jasmine asked.  
  
"I am a hacker after all. I can recall deleted messages, break through protection on protected areas and you think that a little rearrangement of this dungeon rattles me," she chuckled slightly, "You underestimate my capabilities."  
  
She raised her staff above her head and it the rings on the end of it started to glow. The world seemed to stand still for a moment, no one could move and everything was frozen in place. When everybody could move again, Jasmine checked her map display and it was back to the way it had been before.  
  
"How did you…" Lan stood amazed at what had just happened.  
  
"That should alert the system that someone was here. If you want to search this place you had better do it quickly before the administrators re-write this data again." She started to head into a door that had appeared near them.  
  
"What did you do with our friend," David asked.  
  
Helba stopped and turned, "You mean to fool who jumped in front of the Data Drain," she eyed Kelly," All I did was send him out of this field and into another, keeping Skieth from finishing him off."  
  
"Then why did you say he would be fine? He is in a coma and now lies in a hospital bed," Jasmine shouted.  
  
"So that's what happened to him. I figured that he would be fine, being he did not fade away at first like the rest."  
  
"Well he's not, where did you send him anyway?"  
  
"That, I don't know. I chose a random place to send him to and I don't remember where that was. It doesn't matter since he's in a coma."  
  
Lan swung her ax to Helba's neck while her wand was suddenly engulfed in flames. A dark pit started to appear below Helba's feet and large fangs came from it.  
  
"It matters to us because we can at least know where he died," Kelly said.  
  
"I see that you want to save him being that you all show your rage over what I said."  
  
"You're damn right we care, he's our friend," Jasmine said.  
  
"If you're going to find a way to help him, then it is wise not make enemies of people that can help you." She waived her wand and blew back everybody away from her, "I'll come back when you have calmed down a bit."  
  
She left through the door and paralyzed everybody to keep them from following her. After they recovered, Jasmine, Kelly, David, and Lan went in the door as well. They were transported to the battlefield where they last saw Skieth. Everything was the same as last time except there was sign of Skieth or Jon. During the search, everything started to shake violently, and the scenery surrounding the battlefield started dissipating.   
  
"That must be the administrators re-writing the dungeon data again, we better escape or log out," Lan said.  
  
"Hey, what's going on," David's body became surrounded by the gold rings that would normally cause him to log out but for some reason, he didn't, "The log out command isn't working."  
  
"How do we get out of here if we can't log out?"  
  
"You don't," Aloud booming voice the sounded like it surrounded them.  
  
Bunches of data swirled around the field and started converging on one spot. The scenery melted away to white and instead of looking like they were outside, it looked like a padded room. The data formed into the shape of a man, and the man had a very displeased look on his face.  
  
"You won't escape from here, because I won't allow you to leave," the man's voice still booming throughout the room  
  
"Who are you and why are you going to keep us here," Kelly asked.  
  
"My name if you must know is Lios, and I shall not allow you to leave because you are partially responsible for the virus spreading throughout "The World".  
  
"How do we spread the virus that we are fighting?"  
  
"It's because of those bracelets you wear on your wrists."  
  
"How is it you know about the bracelet as well," David asked.  
  
"I'm of one of the head administrators of CCcorp. It's my job to monitor illegal activity in 'The World'. Those bracelets are illegal equipment and, it is a part of the virus."  
  
"But how are we spreading the virus. We're just using the bracelets to defeat virus infected monsters."  
  
"The bracelet itself is part of the virus and every time you use it, the virus spreads throughout this game."  
  
"Fine we get that you hate us for having these bracelets, but we can just leave by turning off the game and taking off the headset," Jasmine pointed out.  
  
"I wouldn't do that if I were you."  
  
"Why do you say that?"  
  
"Every time you play this game, part of brain in transferred to the game character, if you were to turn off the system without logging out, you would be shutting down those parts of your brain."  
  
"But how is that possible?"  
  
"You were wondering how a game can put a person into a coma, well there is your reasoning."  
  
"I get it now," Kelly said, "When I person has Data Drain used on them, their brain is drained from them, and without the brain, the body goes into a coma."  
  
"But then why would the person be put into a coma instead of die," Jasmine asked.  
  
"I told you," Lios interrupted, "only parts of the brain are put in the game."  
  
"So if we turned off the system we would put ourselves into a coma."  
  
"Exactly, and the headset is the transfer medium. Removing it would be like severing a simple connection and will have the same result of turning off your system."  
  
"But we need to save our friend. He was put into a coma from the horned monster Skieth," Lan said.  
  
"So that monster has been given a name, and your friend, he was drained by this Skieth."  
  
"Yes and we're searching for a way to return him to normal."  
  
"I will allow you to leave and let you find a cure for the coma virus, but only certain conditions."  
  
Chapter 10 End

A/N: I hope my little plot twist doesn't completely kill my story I wanted to give a reason for the whole coma thing during the games so I made one, it makes sense doesn't it? Oh well if you don't like it then tough. Still hunting for all my hard copies so I will post another chapter when I can. LATES people.


	11. Chapter 11: Angels and Thorns

Disclaimer: I don't own .Hack. Don't sue me for the people I use in this fic.

A/N: I know the little explanation for the coma victims in the games I made was a little wierd and has some holes to it. I have it explained a little more and clear up some holes that I saw in the theory but they are explained in later chapters. Enjoy what I have here.

Chapter 11: Angels and Thorns  
  
Kelly, Lan, David, and Jasmine talked it over about whether they should follow Lios' demands. Unfortunately, they had no choice but to accept his demands because they would be unable to log out without putting themselves into comas.  
  
"What do you want then," Kelly asked reluctantly.  
  
"You will work for CCcorp. By helping us eradicate the virus, under my orders," Lios descended down toward Kelly and her friends.  
  
"What would be different about working for you than doing that on our own?"  
  
"For one thing, you have no choice but work for us. Another difference is that you will be given back up, should you need it. You will follow my orders exactly, and you not, will by any means, do anything other than those orders. Failure to follow my orders will lead to the deletion."  
  
"So basically we become your hit men," Jasmine said.  
  
"In layman's terms, yes. You'll be happy to know that we have many operatives and they will accompany you from time to time. This includes Balmung of the Azure Sky."  
  
"Why would Balmung ever work for you?"  
  
"Because he has the same goal as we do and he needed help. So we offered him some in exchange for his services."  
  
"Ok, we'll work for you, can we leave now," Kelly said, "I personally need to get to sleep."  
  
"Very well, I shall allow you to leave. I will contact you through email with your first assignment tomorrow afternoon."  
  
"Fine then," Kelly turned and started to leave.  
  
"By the way," Lios called them back, "Since you'll be working for us, we will keep a constant look-out on your activities here in "The World". Keep in mind also that since you'll be working for us that you should not associate yourselves with anyone who commits illegal activity."  
  
"I see you have already been keeping a look out on us already for you to say that."  
  
"Yes, and we monitored you because you have those bracelets. Just be sure to stay away from any hackers you may know," and with that Lios disappeared.  
  
"Great, not only do we have to Skieth and Helba to worry about, now were working for this lunatic," David said.  
  
"I only told him that we work for him so that we could get out of here, not because I actually want to work for him."  
  
Everybody logged out and rested without looking at anything else that night. The next day, Jasmine looked at the message boards for any new threads regarding Skieth. One thread that caught her eye was titled "Mystery Sword in Dun Lorieag". She opened it to see that the thread was about the memorial she helped set in place for Jon, and players were wondering why they couldn't remove the sword and take it for themselves. She posted other players warning them not to touch that sword because it belonged to Jon and that when he got back he would come looking for that sword. She also added that it would be useless for anyone for anyone to even try taking it because her friends had set a lot of protection and only he knew the password to unseal it. She decided to check if the sword was fine, being that so many players have been trying to take it. When she got there, many people were lined up in front of the sword while some tried pulling out the sword while others tried hacking through the seal set in place. Jasmine ran through everyone and stood in front of the sword.  
  
"Anyone who wants to try and take this sword has to go through me to get it," she shouted out to the entire group.  
  
"Why do you care if we take it or not," shouted one player, "It's not like you can use it anyway."  
  
"I'm a friend of the owner of this sword, and I won't allow anyone to take it."  
  
"I won't either," said a familiar voice from out of the crowd. Kelly pushed her way through and stood next to Jasmine, "No will take this sword and we'll defend it to our last breath."  
  
Many of the players started to leave, losing interest in the sword and figuring that Jasmine and Kelly were taking this too far. The ones that stayed started to take an aggressive attitude toward them and brandished their weapons. One particular player pushed her way through the others.  
  
"Everywhere I go, and everything I do anymore, I keep running into you bastards," yelled Blackrose.  
  
"You again, why would you want this sword, bitch," Jasmine snapped.  
  
"I want it because I need a new sword and that one belonged to your buddy Enigma and he was the winner of that tournament he knocked me out of."  
  
"So this is your form of revenge against him for beating you in a simple tournament," Kelly asked.  
  
"Your damned right this is revenge, but this is also because I can't go anywhere without hearing about you guys," Blackrose charged at Jasmine.  
  
Jasmine avoided the attack easily and looked toward Kelly, "Create a barrier so that she and I are alone."  
  
Kelly backed up and called forth a blizzard to the area. Large layers of ice formed to seal Jasmine and Blackrose inside with all others stuck inside in ice because they tried to rush in or outside the ice walls. The sword stood between Jasmine and Blackrose in the center of the make-shift arena. Jasmine had unsheathed her swords and waited for Blackrose to charge her again. Blackrose lifted her sword high into the air and charged as fast as she could. As she got close to Jasmine, Jasmine rolled to the side and sliced Blackrose in her left thigh. Blackrose barely registering the pain turned and attempted to knock out Jasmine with one stroke. The giant swing missed as Jasmine jumped backward and readied herself to strike. Jasmine tried slicing Blackrose with her left blade only for it to be held back by Blackrose's sword. When Jasmine tried the right blade, Blackrose grabbed and held Jasmine's wrist keeping the blade from reaching her. They each struggled to overpower the other, but neither gaining much of an advantage. Blackrose took this chance and kicked Jasmine hard in the stomach, which made her start to fall backward. Blackrose seized the chance and quickly slashed at Jasmine. The blade hit Jasmine in her stomach leaving a large wound, and Jasmine held it in extreme pain. She thought to herself why the hit hurt so much compared to wounds she suffered before. She even felt the pain from her real body only to discover that her real body was in pain but, no marks. She then remembered what Lios had said about the connection the game made. She figured that if she didn't want to take anymore hits, she would have to use her speed and not her power to beat Blackrose. Outside the ice walls, many players were trying to climb the walls and attempt to take the sword while Jasmine and Blackrose were busy. Kelly saw this and started setting all those who tried ablaze and killing those players. She felt bad doing it, but she knew it had to be done, since they would only cause Jasmine more problems and she had her hands full with Blackrose. As she was about to finish the last player from getting over the wall, she froze as she saw the player's face. She only hoped that is wasn't who she thought it was, and would be hurt during the fight inside.  
  
"I finally have the chance to beat your ass after all the crap I took from you," Blackrose snickered.  
  
"I don't need them to take care of you, you retarded ho," Jasmine motioned her hands and suddenly made copies of herself, "I only need more of myself to quickly kill."  
  
"What the hell is this, this can't be right. There's no way there can be more of you."  
  
Blackrose had become surrounded by the clones and they started attacking her, one by one. Blackrose held off about four before they started to get hits by her, but they were minor attacks that slowly chipped away at her health. Jasmine stood back and watched as her clones did the work for her. Blackrose killed the last of the clones, but she was left drained and barely able to stand. She balanced herself on her sword and slowly walked toward Jasmine.  
  
"What's the problem, did you wear yourself out before we could fight some more," Jasmine laughed at Blackrose.  
  
"Bitch," Blackrose yelled, "all you 'did' was make copies of yourself. 'You' really didn't do anything."  
  
"Maybe, but none the less, you will die by my blade today."  
  
Jasmine ran straight toward Blackrose, and the heavy blade got herself ready to try and counter attack. As Jasmine got close enough, Blackrose made a desperate swing at Jasmine only to see the blade pass through her as Jasmine body seemed to fade away. The next moment, Jasmine was behind her with her swords on her neck, one in the front, and one on the back.  
  
"Just finish me off quickly and don't gloat about it," Blackrose sighed and accepted her defeat.  
  
"Just leave here now, and don't try to take this sword again," Jasmine warned her again.  
  
"Just one thing before you kill me, why is your buddy Enigma not carrying that sword anyway."  
  
"If you have to know, he was put into a coma by Skieth about a week ago, and this is a memorial to him."  
  
"So that's why you guys guarded it with your life. Balmung said something about how more players, and better ones were being attacked by that monster."  
  
"And with that last bit of information, you die just because you piss me off bitch," Jasmine crossed the blades, severing Blackrose's head.  
  
Jasmine walked toward the edge of the ice wall and told Kelly to let her out. Kelly burned away a section of the wall so that Jasmine could get out.  
  
"Damn Kelly," Jasmine saw all the charred bodies around the wall, "What's with all the bodies burning here?"  
  
"I kept people from climbing over the wall so that you could take care of Blackrose," she replied.  
  
"Maybe setting them all on fire was a bit much."  
  
"Uhhh… not all of them."  
  
"What you talking about Kelly?"  
  
"One guy got over before I could get him, but for some reason I just couldn't do it."  
  
"Why is that, you ran out of SP and recovery items or what?"  
  
"No. The guy looked a lot like Jon, but different somehow."  
  
"I didn't notice anyone else in there with me, but I could have just not noticed him. What do you mean that the guy looked like Jon?"  
  
"He turned to look at me, and at first glance I could have sworn it was him."  
  
"Your paranoid Kelly, there is no way that he could be here. He's in a coma and there is no way he can be here."  
  
"I guess your right; I've been a little on edge lately because of Lios and other things happening."  
  
"Yeah, the whole Lios, Jon situations, and school has been stressful," a chime rang,   
  
"Oh that's for me, I'll see you guys later at school."   
  
Jasmine disappeared behind the gold rings and Kelly was left alone. She decided to check out something that the one player wasn't who she thought it was. She walked through the whole arena she made in the wall and looked toward the memorial. To her surprise, the sword was missing and there seemed to be something in its place. She ran to the place where the sword used to be and noticed it was a note. The note said that whoever helped keep the sword safe, the player thanked, and signed in anonymous. Kelly knew that only one person could take that sword from where it used to be, and the thing that caught her eye the most is the way that the person signed it. She mailed everyone what she saw and told them about the note that had been left for them.  
  
Chapter 11 End

Serious A/N: About the violence I put in my chapters, please don't report me cause I don't feel I'm out of line. If it is then write me and when enough people say so, I will change the rating. I'm just trying to make a good fanfic and if I cross the line between PG14 and R then I'm sorry. I don't want my account taken away because someone felt offended by what I write. Be done with next chap by next Sunday unless plans come up. LATES.


	12. Chapter 12: Black and White

Author's note  
  
Like Chapter 8, this is a sappy romance chapter between Balmung and my friend Jasmine. I needed a filler chapter and she gave me this idea. I'm throwing in a battle scene to it just for my own touch, but this is mainly her idea. I accept almost all ideas given to me, just send it in, and I'll see if I can write it in my fanfic. Thanks again Jasmine for reviews and ideas. Plus I got paid for it. This also has my explanation to my coma thoery so please don't hate bc of the sappiness.

Chapter 12: Black and White

Jasmine logged out to see who sent her some mail. She saw that Kelly wrote her with the subject as urgent but she would read it later. She saw that Balmung had written her telling her to meet him at their normal spot. She quickly logged in and went to Delta Secret Hidden Fort Walls, only to see that something about it was different. Some patches of the sky seemed broken, and some of the graphics were blotched or faded. She walked around and after about ten minutes Balmung appeared behind her and hugged her.  
  
"Thought you wouldn't come after I didn't receive any word from you for about ten to fifteen minutes after I sent the mail," said Balmung.  
  
"I was a little busy and I just some free time," she replied.  
  
"Busy how?"  
  
"I had to take care of a few things involving Blackrose and my friends."  
  
"Would this happen to do with that giant fight over in Dun Lorieag involving that thread on the message board?"  
  
"It might, may not."  
  
"Why are you always like this, always trying to get me to dig it out of you?"  
  
"Because I feel like it."  
  
"Heheheh, well did it have to do with the thread?"  
  
"Yeah, I needed to protect that sword for my friend."  
  
"Huh, why would you have to watch that sword? If I remember correctly the sword was for a heavy blade, so wouldn't that belong to Enigma?"  
  
"Yeah, but he's not doing to well, so he left his sword with me and my friends."  
  
"You're not telling me everythiiiinnnng."  
  
"Fine, since your twisting my arm about it, Enigma got put into a coma."  
  
"Ahhh, I see."  
  
"Why did you call me here anyway? I bet it's not just for a friendly talk and to see my beautiful self."  
  
"Acutally, that's one reason I came, but the main reason was that I wanted to give you something. I've had it for a long time, and I've had no use for it, and thought it perfect if I gave it to you."  
  
"So you're giving me your old junk!!!"  
  
"It's not junk, the item is called 'The wings of Darkness'."  
  
"What do these wings do anyway?"  
  
"It's similar to my wings of light. They were originally meant to go to Orca, but since he didn't want them, the administrators gave them to me."  
  
"So it does what?"  
  
"Take them and equip them as your armor."  
  
Jasmine did as Balmung said, but no real difference could be seen in the appearance of Jasmine. After about a few seconds, Jasmine started to show her irritation.  
  
"Ok, was something supposed to happen or was this just some dumb armor you wanted to give me."  
  
"Give it a minute."  
  
"I don't have time for this, I had just gotten some mail from Sakura and she said it was urgent," Jasmine was yelling at him.  
  
Black shadows started to sprout from her back and began to grow until the shadow was as large as her entire body. Balmung motioned for Jasmine to look behind her and she was surprised to see the shadowy figure behind her. The shadows began to change and formed into sleek, black feathers, and the shadows finally changed into black wings, similar to Balmung's, different only in color.  
  
"What the…," Jasmine was unable to say another word.  
  
"Those are the wings of darkness. Unlike my wings those will only reveal themselves at certain times, as to keep administration off you back about modifying your character."  
  
"Why give these to me though."  
  
"What would an angel like you be without a pair of wings to show she is one," he caressed her arm.  
  
She grabbed his hand and squeezed it gently, "This is a little much."  
  
"Not at all, angel, those wings make it perfect," he pulled her close and covered her with his wings.  
  
"The angelic love is now complete. With these wings I have truly become a dark angel."  
  
"You have always been my angel. These wings just show that everyone else that you are."  
  
"Balmung, being with you gets my mind off all the bad things that have been happening lately," she wrapped her wings around him, and both of them seemed to glow. They held each other closely and kissed passionately.  
  
"What a nice view of the two lovebirds," a voice said from above.  
  
Both Balmung and Jasmine looked up to notice that Helba was watching them with an evil grin on her face, "What on Earth are you doing here, hacker," Balmung said fiercely.  
  
"Just on a quick patrol, looking for anything out of the ordinary," Helba said dryly, "I seemed to have to found two little birdies, and one seems to have gained her wings."  
  
"How did you know where to find us," Jasmine asked.  
  
"I noticed a field created and then had protection placed on it soon after being created. It just seemed strange."  
  
Jasmine's feathery wings changed back to the evil looking shadow which still looked like wings, but without the angelic look to them, "So what are you here to do anyway," she yelled at Helba.  
  
"I've only come to tell that there is a new anomaly in the system, you may notice him too, Darkangel."  
  
"I don't care about what you found and I've just about had it with you!!!"  
  
"Very well, I guess that I will just have to beat sense into your hard head."  
  
"I personally don't about hackers that much, but anyone who threatens Darkangel will have to face my wrath," Balmung said unsheathing his sword.  
  
"Ahh…so the two angels are willing to fight. Maybe you two lovebirds can actually hit me once."  
  
Balmung flew straight at Helba and slashed with his sword narrowly missing her, but Helba seemed to laugh at him as he passed by. Jasmine, flew behind Balmung with her blades ready to strike, and attempted to slash her after Balmung first attack. Helba moved away, leaving Jasmine to pass through air without attacking anywhere near Helba. Helba laughed at their efforts to hit her and told them it was useless to try. Helba raised her wand and the two rings on it started to glow and lightning clouds started to form all around the fields. It started to rain all over the entire field, and lightning began to striking around Balmung and Jasmine. Jasmine flew straight as Helba and Helba dodged like before but this time, Jasmine was ready for her and stabbed her in the stomach. With the blade stuck inside Helba, Jasmine aimed her straight toward the ground and went into a dive bomb. Helba couldn't escape from Jasmine's hold, and was run into the ground. The impact made a large crater from which Helba was unable to get up from, she was able to attack them though. Two gusts of wind hit Jasmine like razor blades, making cuts all over her body. Blamung raced in and threw his sword at Helba's wand, and the sword hit her hand, making Helba drop her wand and was pinned down, by both swords. Jasmine regained her composure and stabbed Helba's other hand with her second blade making it impossible for Helba to retaliate.  
  
"Now what were you saying about an anomaly in the game, wench," Balmung asked.  
  
"Why should I tell you. You just attacked me and almost kill me and you want information," Helba said.  
  
"You'll tell us," Jasmine twisted one the blades in Helba's hands, "or we just might kill you."  
  
"Very well," Helba winced in pain, "I prefer not talking to someone who works for that pig-head Lios, but fine."  
  
"I'll keep this off my report to Lios, so just tell what you know," Balmung stabbed his sword deeper into Helba's hand.  
  
"Stop that or I won't tell you anything. The new anomaly inside 'The World' is a friend of yours Darkangel. He goes by the name Enigma."  
  
"Huh? How is he alive, you saw as well as I did that he was put into a coma by Skieth."  
  
"I know that, but rumors around the board say that he's back and causing a lot of trouble all over 'The World'."  
  
"So your friend who was put into a coma is somehow here and is causing trouble," Balmung putting it together, "You know, Angel, Lios will have me hunting him down if he keeps up his activity."  
  
"Can I go now," Helba was still trying to get up, "Like you both, I have things to do. Would you mind letting me get up by, removing you weapons from my hands and stomach!!"  
  
"One last thing before you go," Jasmine stopped her, "After you left me and my friends paralyzed in that dungeon, we were captured by Lios. He told us something that has been bothering me for the past couple of days. He said something about this game making a connection with parts of the brain through the headset. I just wondered if you could elaborate on that for me."  
  
"That stupid, retarded, pig-head Lios. What was he trying to gain by telling about that," Helba said to herself, "The headset was made to connect as many senses as possible, but there was a flaw in the hardware that CCcorp. was unable to fix. The flaw is that the brain in essence is synchronized with the game character. In layman's terms, what ever the game characters senses, the person controlling the character senses it as well. This includes pain, paralysis, and death."  
  
"Lios also told us when he held me captive, that if I removed the headset, I would put myself in a coma."  
  
"That's true, the headset is a connection medium between the game and the brain, and removing the headset would like severing that connection mid-circuit."  
  
"Then why when I've and many other players have done that, there hasn't been a coma then," Balmung asked.  
  
"The company put in a fail-safe device that would activate in case of blackouts, power surges and simply removing the headset. The device would go through the log out sequence and return the brain to normal in an instant. If Lios told you that you would put yourself into a coma by taking off the headset then he must have deactivated the fail-safe, that bastard."  
  
"He must have done it so that he could make sure we would comply with his demands and work for him. My friends and I only said we'd work for him, just so he would let us go. We're not really going to do what he says."  
  
"Fear not Angel, Lios won't hear a word of this," Balmung said, "If that fool is going to use you like that then I refuse to give him my complete cooperation."  
  
"It's nice that your boyfriend there won't turn you in, but could you let me up now," Helba pleaded, "I told you everything I know, so let me out of here."  
  
Jasmine and Balmung retrieved their swords and let Helba leave as she limped away she turned around, "If you want to find Enimga I would check the message board, because many people have posted his whereabouts as of late."  
  
"Whatever, Helba," Jasmine said as Helba left.  
  
"Well at least we're alone and no one else can mess with us," Balmung sounded relieved.  
  
"Yeah, that's one good thing," Jasmine sounded worried.  
  
"You're worried about what Helba said about your friend aren't you?"  
  
"Not really, just can't understand what she meant about causing trouble, that's so unlike him."  
  
"Don't worry about those things right now, we're together and alone," He hugged her close.  
  
Jasmine's wings returned to the feathered look, "You're right, how long can you stay on tonight?"  
  
"As long as you can, Angel."  
  
They kissed and held each other, and stayed with each other until unknown hours of the night. Jasmine left Balmung while he was asleep, and logged off to write back to Kelly to tell her that she would talk her at school about what Helba had said. 

Chapter 12 End

A/N: I know this clears up some holes in my theory but not all. Next chap might take me a while since I got stuff going on at my house right now. Sorry I put story line along with romance so whatever. I will try in the future not to do this again. Review my work. LATES.


	13. Chapter 13: The Lonely Swordman

A/N: I know it has been a while for me to update, but writer's block hit me hard and I couldn't think of ANYTHING until a couple nights ago. That and my internet was down cause it got switched to dsl. Anyway, I have this now so enjoy.

Chapter 13: The Lonely Swordman  
  
Jasmine meet with Kelly soon after she left Balmung to discuss what was so important being that she was with her before going to Balmung. She meet with everyone else by the Elves Haven and saw that Kelly had a piece of paper with her.  
  
"Can we hurry this up," Jasmine said tiredly, "I was up all night leveling and have things to do today."  
  
"This shouldn't take too long," Kelly said nervously, "I just wanted you all to see this note left at the the sword memorial we made and verify something for me."  
  
Each of them read the note over and each showed a bit of shock while reading it, except Jasmine who yawned a lot while reading it. The note read:  
  
To those who defended this memorial/shrine or whatever you call it:  
  
I read the board and noticed that a very powerful sword was there ad decided to check it out. After hearing my name said I knew that it was my sword you were protecting and seeing who the memorial was made for only confrimed this. I left this note as to meet you people and thank you in person. I have created a field that you can meet me at called Delta Frozen Silent Swordman. I hope to meet with you soon. Until then, LATES.  
  
Sincerely,  
  
Enigma  
  
After Kelly got back the note she saved it to file and the note dissintagrated away.  
  
"So you all have a guess as to who wrote this right," she asked matter-of-factly.  
  
"Well yeah," David shouted, "It's either Jon awake and we didn't know it, or it's someone using his character and somehow knows his password."  
  
"It has to be Jon though," Lan said, "He's the only one we could possibly know that uses that lates with all caps."  
  
"Why don't we check out this field he left us and see who the guy is rather than sit here guessing," Jasmine yelled as she ran toward the chaos gate.  
  
The field was heavily protected but the virus cores needed were easy ones to find and they protection quickly. They arrived at a field that was in a complete blizzard. As far as each of them could see was snow and mounds of it. Jasmine called see a faint blur light coming from the north and had everyone follow her to it. as they got closer to the light they could see what they thought was snowman but as they got closer the snow fell away revealing a person who they couldn't see very well because of the storm.  
  
"Nice weather here huh," the man shouted to them, "I'm a little surprised you took as long as you did."  
  
"Who are you," David asked," And what do you want with us and that sword your carrying around?"  
  
"To answer your questions in order, My name is Enigma, I wanted to thank you guys for making sure no one stole it, and this is my sword so I'll use it to survive in this world."  
  
"Come one Jon stop kidding around," Kelly laughed.  
  
"Who are you talking about?"  
  
"Knock off the role-playing Jon," David laughed, "You really suck at it."  
  
"Yeah if your trying to role-play, you should at least lower your voice," Jasmine said.  
  
"I really have no idea what you people are talking about. I don't know anyone by that name," Enigma said puzzled.  
  
"Fine, then what is your real name. What do your friends call you outside of 'The World'?"  
  
The man's face instantly turned from puzzled to depressed, "I have no idea. I only know how the rules of this world work, my name, and I get images in my head of an angel, a woman in white, and some horned beast."  
  
"That would most likely be Balmung, Helba, and Skeith," Jasmine pointed out.  
  
The man ran and grabbed her shoulders, "You know who these people are!?"  
  
Jasmine pushed him away, "Yeah we all know them and...," trying to find the right words, "Let's just say that you don't like any of them very much."  
  
"So none of them would help me," he slumped his shoulders and released Jasmine.  
  
"Helba might, but she's not on anyone's good list right now. Balmung would most likely kill you, and Skeith is the one who made you this way," Kelly explained.  
  
"If everyone I know is untrustworthy, why should I trust you people?"  
  
"What are you talking about Jon," Lan said surprised.  
  
"If I can't trust them, then how can I trust any of you," he stepped back and glared at each of them.  
  
"We're your friends, and we wouldn't lie to you about something like this."  
  
"If your suspicious, then check your member addresses and you'll find each of us there along with other people you used to trust," David trying to reason with him.  
  
After a mintue with Enigma having a dazed look on his face, he looked at each of his former friends and shoke his head as he took a good look at each of their faces. He stood easy which he hadn't done since the group had arrived and smiled at them.  
  
"What's with that grin that sort of makes me uneasy," Lan asked.  
  
"Just thinking about what I should do, and what I could do," Enigma said as he reached for his sword  
  
Kelly started backing upalong with David, "What do you mean by that?"  
  
"I mean I could take your word and ask to pal around with you," relaxing his hand, "take off and make sure you never see me again, or kill you all," gripping the sword again then relaxing," I like to stay away from the last option if I can."  
  
"Man, you never get tired of the tough guy routine do you," David nervouly chuckled.  
  
A chime went off as everyone recieved mail at that same time and Enigma took off after telling them he had something to do. The real reason he left was that the mail was from Helba telling him to meet her in Carmina Gadelica which was closed off. He went to the chaos gate and tried to enter but it wouldn't let him through. He tried it again and was asked his screen name and after putting it in and watching the chaos gate flicker it gave him access to the server. As he entered the city of constant night, he noticed that it was abandoned and no lights were on except the street lights. Walking through the streets, he felt as if he was being watched and feeling someone near him, he grabbed an dagger out of his pack and threw it toward where he thought the person was. The dagger was stopped in mid air in front a woman dressed in white with a strange wand in her hand that was glowing. The wand pulsed as the dagger spun around and flew back at Enigma. He caught it and shoved it into his pocket.  
  
"I didn't think you would come this quickly my little lost boy," Helba said.  
  
"Who are you and how do you know me," Enigma yelled as he unsheathed his sword.  
  
"I'm the one who saved you from being killed, or have you forgotten all I've done for you?"  
  
"Fine then, what do you want with me now?"  
  
"I only want to talk for now. I wish to tell you about who you really are and something I need you to do."  
  
"And to get the info on myself, I need to do your dirty work, right?"  
  
"I'm not that creul, as some people would say. I only wish to give you this information and then ask if you would do me a favor."  
  
A screen appeared in front of Enigma with his picture on it. He tapped the picture and it faded away and revealed information he didn't understand right away:  
  
User: Jon Del Pozo  
  
Screen Name: TheEnigma310  
  
Class: Heavy Blade  
  
Level: 37  
  
"What's your point by giving me this? Any of this "information" could be fake."  
  
"If you want even more proof, I'll send you a video I recorded a while back that proves who you are."  
  
"I don't have time for your games, I'm gone," he started walking back towards the chaos gate.  
  
"It's sad that you can't trust the people who you once called your dearest friends," she said which made him stop, "The people who came and saw you before I called you were the people you cared for enough to sacrifice yourself for."  
  
"I have other things to attend to so you can forward me that video anytime you feel like."  
  
"Don't lie just because you don't trust me about this. What I believe is that you don't trust yourself since you have little memories before your incident with Skieth."  
  
"Just forward me the video and I'll decide what to believe."  
  
"I won't give you anything without hearing what I need you to do."  
  
He turned around with fury in his eyes and sword grasped tightly in hand, "You call me down here, and waste my time. You tell me things I don't really care to hear. I could live with that, but I'll make you pay for insulting me and trying to leave here with me empty-handed," he grabbed the dagger out his pocket and threw it at her.  
  
Ap Vorv," Helba said lightly as a barrier surrounded here and stopped the dagger from touching her. The dagger fell to the ground, "You tried that before. Why did you think it would the second time you tried it?"  
  
Enigma charged at her but proved useless as Helba held out her wand and as it glowed, Enigma was pushed back. He flew into the recorder's station and crashed through the desk. He got up slowly, he tried charging again, but as he got within striking range, she held out the wand again and sent him flying toward the magic shop. He crashed into the shop, knocking over many of the scrolls. He looked at some of the scrolls there and grabbed a few and stood in front of the now destroyed shop. He held his sword looking like he was going to charge her again, but as soon as she held out the wand he reached back and pulled out some of the scrolls he took.  
  
"OrMeAni Kruz," he shotued as he threw out one of the scrolls. Giant claws came out of the ground and grabbed Helba's legs and arms and pulled down on her, making her unable to move while other claws scratched at her. Enigma used the time while she was immobile to run toward her and prepare for a flurry of sword attacks. As he got near the claws started to disappear and he rumaged through his pack quickly for another scroll. He found one that was OrRue Rom and threw it out and made a whilwind of water and ice swirl around Helba. Some of the ice blocks slammed into her arms and made her drop her wand. He ran at her and pulled out his sword destroyed her wand, turned and stabbed her in the middle of her chest. He lifted her up and slammed her down into the ground with the sword still lodged in her chest.  
  
"Now you will listen to me bitch," Jon yelled in her face.  
  
"What are you trying to prove by doing this?"  
  
"Just send me that video and I'll drop it and maybe help you with what you needed. Don't and I'll use this," the bracelet on his wrist flickered into sight.  
  
From what Enigma could tell, Helba showed a sign of fear as soon as the bracelet showed up, "There's no need to use that kind of force."  
  
"Good, then send me the video now," the bracelet started to expand as if preparing a data drain.  
  
They both seemed to be put into a trance for about a minute then Helba being more angry then afraid, "There you have it. Now let me leave so I can get back work."  
  
Enigma pulled his sword out from her chest, "Mail me if you still want me to want me to help you out," he disappeared behind gold rings.  
  
Helba thought to herself that Enigma would pay for this embarassment and that she was losing her touch. It would twice that she has been pinned down and forced to do someone else's wishes. Then she realized that she could remove both of these problems at the same time. She grinned at her idea and signed out.  
  
Enigma returned to Delta Frozen Silent Swordman to see that his earlier visitors were gone, not to his surprise. He pulled out some healing drinks and poured them on the wounds that Helba had inflicted on him. He then accesed the video file that Helba had given him. The video was of very poor quality and not much could be seen really well. The screen shifted downward to show five players and a large human-like creature with horns. Each of the smaller players were attacking the large beast. After a little while into the tape it zoomed in on the beast and Enigma could now tell it was the beast he saw in his nightmares, Skieth. It started firing beams of light at each of the players, and he could tell that the beams were data drain attacks. With the camera zoomed in he could now see each of the players better and noticed that they were himself and the others from before. He could tell that each of them were saying things but the clip must have not had any audio to it. He was covering the two wavemasters while they cast spells on the beast. They had all scattered after Skieth started using data drained. He then saw that the female wavemaster, Sakura had fallen down and was unable to move in time to avoid the data drain. Then he saw the data drain was stopped by him and at that point something inside him triggered, and images started falshing in his head. He saw his friends one at a time, the first time he saw Skieth, and remembered everything that had happened to him. Jon closed the video and instantly called his former friends.

Chapter 13 End

A/N: I think that sums up a lot, but I could be wrong. I'm using a new comp now and this one doesn't have word so I can't spell check, and I apologize in advance for anything that isn't spelled correctly. Next chap up by next 8/8. LATES people.


	14. Chapter 14: Destroy the Virus

Disclaimer: I don't own the rights on .Hack in any way, so don't sue me for using their characters. This is the last time I actually put this, and from now on I'l just say refer to this chapter.

A/N: After having writer's block, I came up wih three different ways I could have gone after chapter 13. I went with this because it's the happy-go-lucky-everyone-wins-way, but I do have two more ways I could have gone.   
1: Jon's friends talk to each other and feel that he is no longer the person they once knew and because of that decide to kill him and go after Skieth in vengence. Later they all succomb to Skieth's data drain and become victims themselves (End of story).  
2: Jasmine, David, Lan, and Kelly meet with Jon only for him to tell them that they should forget him, and he becomes a rogue player, who eventually dies at the hands of Skieth (can become new story, Ghost of Friends Forgotten).  
3: What I actually posted here.  
  
Leave a review saying what you like cause I have written chapters to each path I thought of. I might new sub-stories for the most popular ones. Enjoy what I have here. What seem like page breaks are change in POV FYI.

Chapter 14: Destroy the Virus  
  
As he waited in the blizzard he now called home, Jon ran through his mind what he should say to the friends he blew off just the day before. He felt horrible for doing that to them, but felt better as he thought Helba must have felt after he got the best of her. He sat there for about another three hours before Kelly showed up alone.  
  
"The others must be pretty pissed off," Jon said scratching his shoulder.  
  
"DarkAngel said she would have beat the crap out of you if you hadn't taken off yesterday," she sounded a little angry herself and he couldn't reall blame her, "As for Lina and ChaosB1ade, she's busy with her boyfriend, and him with work."  
  
"So you're the only one with nothing to do so you came to see me. Let me just start by..," he was cut off.  
  
"Let me start by start by telling you that we came here yesterday to see that you were okay and you acted like we didn't exist to you!!"  
  
"About that I...,"  
  
"And then you take off without even a simple good-bye or a reason why you left!! You aren't even the same person we knew from...," she stopped as he embraced her.  
  
He whispered softly in her ear, "It's fine Kelly, I know who you are and I'm really sorry about yesterday."  
  
Her eyes grew wide at what he said, "Jon," she said confused and scared at the same time.  
  
He nodded as a screen came up in front of her showing the video that Helba had sent him, "That was the reason I took off yesterday. Helba wrote me and gave me that video and when I saw it, for some reason it all came back."  
  
"Wait a minute, Helba gave you that, why would she do that for no reason?"  
  
"Oh there was a reason, she wouldn't give me the video at first but I 'convinced' her to give it to me," he chuckled as he tapped his sword, "Well now she wants me to do a little job for her, but I don't know what it is yet."  
  
"Are you going to do it? You know she would turn on you in a second."  
  
"I guess, after she gave me that video, it's the least I could do. Besides, if she tries anything funny I could do a little more convincing," he laughed.  
  
"Now that's the Jon I remember, by the way, what happened to you after Skieth drained you and you were teleported away from the battle?"  
  
"Now that's the strangest part cause I woke up in a forest. The first thing that caught me was that I felt every little thing that happened to me, even bug flying on me. I meet up with some players and they were the ones who told me my sword was in Dun Loireag."  
  
"How did they know you though," she saw her display come up and display Jon's name and HP count as she slapped her head. The HP count was wierd like when she saw Skieth's display, "Hey have been in any battles since you woke up?"  
  
"Now that you mention it, the only battle I was in was the one with Helba last night, why do you ask?"  
  
"Your HP looks like Skieth's."  
  
"I guess I'll have to guess when I think I'm going to die, and now that I think about it, my back still hurts from being thrown into those shops," a mail chime went off and both checked their mail to see Jon had a new message from Helba and Kelly from Jasmine. She said that she would on-line shortly and that they should both beat some sense into Jon.  
  
"Maybe I better send the flash mail then, I bet she'll get a kick out of it, that or use her nut-cracker technique on me," he feared the thought of that as he sent the flash mail. He got back a reply that was less than enthusiasic:  
  
"Enigma or Jon, whatever the hell you call yourself now, if you hadn't said that Sakura was there I would have ignored this, be right there, and be ready for an ass-beating."  
  
"You better stall her while I explain," he warned Kelly.  
  
As Jasmine entered the field, fire seemed to be her eyes as she started walking straight towards Jon, but Kelly started holding her back telling her to wait and listen to what he had to say. She pushed Kelly away and went into a mad dash for the heavy blade with balled up fists. When she got to him she pulled her foot back and feined a kick to Jon's groin and stopped at that. He, in a reflex, turned to the side and tried to avoid a straight on kick, and she laughed as she saw that.  
  
"I really have taught you a reflex to my technique haven't I," she fell back into the snow laughing. "Wait, wait, let me try one more thing," still laughed histarically, "Yaoi."  
  
Jon instantly fell to the ground as if his knees gave out on him and neck pulled him down. Kelly couldn't help but laugh at that, being that Jon had a huge dislike towards all things yaoi.  
  
"You know that was evil," as he struggled to his feet, "I know you two are the ones who programmed that into my character one day I asked if Kelly could help me find something on my comp," he went up to Jasmine and picked her up and set her back on her feet, "Now if you're done, taking advantage of what you've done to me, I wanted to tell you something. That mail I just got," he nodded to Kelly, "was from Helba and it's about her little job she wants me to do."  
  
"Eh," Jasmine asked being completely clueless. Kelly forwarded her the tape and told her everything that Jon had told her, "Okay so what's the job?"  
  
"She wants me to investigate an area with the help 'the angels', which I suppose she means Balmung, but who else I wonder. I mean Balmung is the only one that kind of character model so how could there be another angel-looking character out there."  
  
Jasmine rubbed her back where her wings would sprout from and thought that Helba ment her, "Maybe she meant Lan. You know how she has those little tiny wings on her back, nothing the size of Balmung's but they are wings."  
  
"I better write her back and ask what she what she means by that and tell her I'm ready to go at any time."  
  
Jasmine got mail and gave a signal to Kelly that it was Lios and that they needed to talk alone. They told Jon that they had things to do and that they would be back later. As they gated out of the field, he thought about the message again, but sort of didn't want to take the job. He thought about Balmung and worried that he wouln't be able to work together with such a hot-head but then again he did work with Jasmine and she was a female version of him in his mind.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
  
Jasmine and Kelly arrived in Mac Anu and Jasmine instantly turned to Kelly, "Lios wants me to go on a mission with Balmung. The mission, however is to kill a certain anomaly character, which he called a vagrant AI."  
  
"You don't think that the mission is to kill Jon do you," Kelly was in shock as she thought it.  
  
"I have to confirm it with Lios but I hate to think if that's the case."  
  
"Well, you do that while I go and tell Lan and David about Jon and send them the video," she gated out as she disappeared behind gold rings.  
  
Jasmine sent a message back to Lios asking about the specifics of the job like when it would be and what that vagrant AI looked like. As she sent the message away she got another from Balmung asking if she got the message about their mission. After reading over the message, she went to the bridge and looked at her reflection and thought about what would happen if found herself in that worst case position. Would she be able to bring herself to point her weapons at her friend or if it came to it, the man she loved. If she went through with the mission, then she would kill Jon and completely destroy her friendship with her other friends. On the other hand, if she didn't, then she would betray her love and lose the ahpiness that Balmung brought her. She stood thinking about what she could do when mail came to her and she saw that it was from Lan asking about where Jon was because he was missing from the field he said he would be at. After reading that, Jasmine instantly checked the first message from Lios to see that the area was Theta Sacred Ominous Hypha. She immediately warped there to be sure that Jon and Balmung weren't fighting and to be sure that they were both okay. She reached the field and saw that no one was around and worried that she was either too late or that they were already in the dungeon. She gated out and checked if any flash mail had been sent to her and she found none, but sent some to Jon asking where he was. He was currently in Dun Loireag around the grunty pen, waiting for further word on Helba's job. She ran to him and was out of breath when see saw that he was fine and looked like nothing had happened.   
  
"Hey Jas, what's wrong with you," he saw she was exhausted and wondered what she could have been doing, "Still no word from Helba about my job. What was your mail all about?"  
  
"Jon get out of here and don't take Helba's job, I think she's plotted with the administrators to have you killed," she said with horror in her eyes.  
  
"Wait, calm down," he grabbed her shoulders, "Now why would the administrators want me dead, and how do you know this?"  
  
She explained to him about Lios and she was given her task to kill a vagrant AI along with Balmung and that her task came right around the same time Jon got his message from Helba, "It may not be that but still, you shouldn't do what she asks."  
  
"If administration wants me gone then they could come at me anytime they feel like it, so why not take on their attack dogs head on?"  
  
"I see your point, well I'll be seeing you around," she walked towards the elf's haven to get some epuipment she would need for this mission. Her weapon from Balmung was the only one she had so all she got was some healing potions, healing drinks, Forest Gloves to go along with her Thunder Gloves, and Ranger Boots. She went to the recorder, saved and waited for Balmung to come to her.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
  
As Jasmine left him, Jon turned back to the now mid-sized grunty and said he had to go,but would be back for him. He went to the item shop and stocked up on healing drinks, then went to the elf's haven and went through what he had. He saw he had some Fishskin twin blades that he thought he would give to Jasmine and a Water Beast armor he got in a dungeon he got once but never tried it out. He grabbed the armor and a back up sword, a Ghostdancer. After re-equiping himself he noticed that he was heavy resistance on water attacks with Aqua Guard, Hands of Water, his new Aqua Beast, and Ice Hunter Cap, and laughed at himself for doing that without noticing. Afterward he just walked around the town until Helba sent him another message saying to meet Balmung by the chaos gate and he would have the specifics of what they would be doing. He stood a few feet from the gate and lied down to wait.   
  
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
  
"Balmung, you know what you have to do, don't you," a gruff voice asked the armor-clad blademaster.  
  
"Yes, I am to take DarkAngel and the AI to the middle of the dungeon in Theta Sacred Ominous Hypha and then eliminate the AI by any means necesary," he began thinking about his mission, "Lios, why does this one AI have you troubled? Why don't you just delete it like the others?"  
  
"That is none of your concern. Remember that this AI is your partner's friend so there may be some trouble in getting her to cooperate. Plus we don't know how powerful this AI has become so be careful of what he can do."  
  
"You haven't answered my question, and why would you be concerned with him now?"  
  
"All you need to know is that he is part of the virus that corrupts this world, and you are to destroy that virus," Lios becoming infuriated at Balmung.  
  
"I sense Helba's influence in this, if she any part in this, then you better hope I don't come back. I'll do the job just because he is part of the virus," Balmung logged out and went to Dun Loireag to meet with Enigma and DarkAngel.  
  
Chapter 14 End 

A/N: Hey, after all the happy-go-lucky crap I had to throw in some twist that would bring back the action. I plan to have a showdown between Enigma and Balmung with a sort of unexpected end to the battle. I'm going off the game, so Balmung is NOT the all invincible player he is on the shows and manga. The whole thing about DarkAngel torturing Enigma by saying 'yaoi' is an inside joke with my friends and me. Review with your take on my three ways I could have done this (see top A/N). LATES people.


	15. Chapter 15: Desicion

Disclaimer: See chapter 14.

A/N: I have a job now so chap updates may take longer than normal, but I will continue with this story cuz I think it's good. Enjoy cuz I got nothing else to say for now.

Chapter 15: Decision  
  
Jon laid near the chaos gate for only a couple of minutes before the blue armored Balmung came to the town. He got up and walked right up to him.  
  
"Never expected you to be here," Jon said with arrogance in his voice.  
  
"I'm here on official buisness. Enigma I ask to assist me in an operation concerning the virus in this world," Balmung acting calm and proper to the heavy blade.  
  
"Fine, whatever Balmung of the Azure Sky wants," he wondered why Balmung was being so proper and wondered if Helba had contacted him about this or his was just under order from the administrators.  
  
"Now to go get our third member," Balmung sent a flash mail to Jasmine telling him that they were ready to begin the operation. She replied and came to the chaos gate and was not surprised to see Jon with him.  
  
They warped to Theta Sacred Ominous Hypha and Balmung told them, "Our job is to the dungeon for a vagrant AI and destroy it when we find him. This field is sealed off, so no one can enter and no one can leave, so he has to be here. Just remember that he looks like a normal player so strike first and ask quesions later," during the whole explination he was looking straight at Jasmine.  
  
"Oh DarkAngel, here," Jon handed her the Fishskin blades and said he was meaning to give them to her, "So where do we begin, o mighty Balmung?"  
  
"I'll search the field from above and DarkAngel from the ground, you head towards the dungeon and we'll meet you there."  
  
"I'm off then," Jon took off looking as Balmung flapped his wings and took to the air, he laughed at him thinking that he was being unsuspiscious by making him go to the dungeon. He found the dungeon and proceeded inside.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
  
After they split up Jasmine ran around the field for about a minute before Balmung landed in front of her, "We meet up with him in the dungeon and deal with him there, understand Angel," Balmung holding her close.  
  
"But why do we have to do this to him," she had doubt written all over her face, "He just can't be the AI Lios is talking about."  
  
"He isn't the friend you knew. You told me yuorself that saw him put into a coma and none of the coma victims have come out of it yet. I admit, that he's still as arrogant as the last time we meet but according to Lios, he is part of the virus."  
  
"Of course he is because he...," she stopped herself fearing that he found out about the bracelet she had, she would feel Balmung's wrath.  
  
"I know you have doubts about this, and if you still can bring yourself to do this then, I'll deal with it, don't you worry. Now let's get going before he thinks something is wrong."

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
  
As Jon progressed through the dungeon he thought about Balmung and stopped going through every room as to not tire himself out more than he needed to. He thought about why he was here and knew what Helba was thinking.  
  
"I know your either here or listening in Helba," he shouted, "Balmung hasn't been the best follower lately and I know you hate me after what happened last night. So you set this up with the system admins. You're hoping that when Balmung attacks me, I'll use data drain on him and then I die of injuries from the battle. You really should have just told me you wanted me dead instead of using Balmung again. You just can't admit that you're only strength is in hacking and manipulation and not in your own power. You fucking coward."  
  
"Have you lost it Enigma," Balmung came walking into the room where he was as he finished his little speech, not hereing the begining of it, "Why are you just yelling into the air like that?"  
  
"Just something to get the nervousness out of me," playing the fool and he noticed Jasmine wasn't with him, "Where's DarkAngel?"  
  
"We split up to search for you, to make sure you weren't dead," he started to drop his guard, "But I can easily remedy that," as he quickly unsheathed his sword and held it to Jon's neck, "Lios, now!!!!!!"  
  
The area began to distort and it flashed white for a second then returned to normal, "What was that all about, huh angel boy?"  
  
"It was so I can do this," he spun and slashed Jon right thigh. The cut made Jon drop to a knee and clench the wound. Balmung held his sword up to his head and about to deal the finishing blow when Jasmine came into the room which made him turn his attention away. Jon saw his moment and batted the sword away and unsheathed his own. They charged each other and they both clashed in the center of the room, in a deadlock.  
  
"You've gotten a lot stronger, since we fought last Enigma," Balmung surprised at how much strength Jon had gained.  
  
"Still the same old Balmung," Jon said as he overpowered Balmung and cut through his armor but making no wound. Balmung jumped back and inspected his armor amazed that it only took one slash to cut through it. Jon was tapping his sword on his shoulder and Balmung saw that is was a different sword but similar in appearance. He motioned Balmung to come at him and Balmung in a rage charged him.  
  
RUE REVOLVER  
  
Balmung spun around as his sword struck Jon's armor but not really causing any real damage. Balmung was shocked that his attack hadn't done the damage he expected, then he saw the armor that Jon was using and knew that his skills would do nothing to the heavy blade. Their swords clashed on, with neither really gaining an edge. Jon had the advantage in power due to his character class but Balmung had speed and flight on his side. Jasmine stared at the two warriors in awe at how neither had really recieved any damage, yet in fear knowing that both couldn't keep this up forever. Her fears came true as during one of their deadlocks, Jon started to lose strength and Balmung pushed him back to one of the walls and pinned him there. Holding him there, Balmung used his now free hand to pull out a dagger and jam it into Jon's side. As the small blade hit him, Jon winced in pain while trying to fight off Balmung futilly. Out of desperation, Jon pushed away Balmung and poured a healing potion over his wounds on his side and thigh. The wounds instantly healed and all the pain from them was gone. He was surprised at the effect the healing potion had and drank one of his healing drinks and felt rejuvenated and charged straight at Balmung with sword glowing a very bright blue shade.  
  
RUE SMASH  
  
Jon's blade dug into Balmung's shoulder and instantly froze his whole left arm from shoulder to hand. The added weight of the ice made Balmung adjust his stance and forced him to only use one hand to wield his sword. Jon used the oppertunity the let loose an all out fury of attacks on Balmung. Balmung held his own but was unable to launch any kind of counter attack against his foe. Unlike Jon, Balmung wouldn't suffer from fatigue and battle injuries as much as he would. He slashed a few more times, but time he intentionally struck the sword trying to knock it out of his hands and render the angel defenseless. After the first two attacks, Jon saw his chance and swung at Balmung's wrist and connected but Balmung refused to drop his sword. Balmung reacted by swinging his sword back and making a large wound across Jon's chest. Jon admired his determination, but continued his attack to keep Balmung off balance. Both backing away from each other they both healed completely then charged at each other with both blades glowing.  
  
GIRUE CRACK  
  
RUE SMASH  
  
Both blades collided and a shockwave was sent throughout the entire room as ice now covered the floor and near the two warriors craged ice up to the waist, surrounding them. Both of them were frozen in place with swords still locked together, unable to make a move against each other. After a long moment of motionless, both of them collapsed to the floor, both exhausted from enduring the attack. Jasmine ran to them and checked both to make sure they were okay but neither showing great signs of life except that they both had a pulse. She checked both of their HP and found both were left enough HP to stand and take one final hit but nothing else. After another few minutes Jon groaned as he rose to his feet and held his his ribs. He stood over Balmung with sword in hand and prepared to deal the finishing stabbed but found himself able to.  
  
"Jon, don't do this," Jasmine was behind him and holding his arms back and after the battle he went through Jon had no strength left in him to fight, "You'll only be stooping down to their level by doing this."  
  
His arms gave out and his sword fell to the ground, "Balmung if you can understand me then listen, and listen good. There was a reason why you and I were pitted against each other today. You work for administration and I was told to come here by Helba. I beat her last night and this was her way of revenge I guess. I was told to help you and DarkAngel investigate this area for any signs of infection, but I see this was her way of eliminating me. Farewell for now Balmung of the Azure Sky, we should do this again sometime in a more favorable setting," Jon turned and grabbed his sword. He sheathed it on his back and asked Jasmine to help him out of the dungeon.  
  
Balmung heard his words and started to get up after Jon started to walk away. He grabbed his sword and clenched it tightly in his hand before running towards Jon with sword ready to strike.  
  
Jasmine turned back at Balmung as he first started to rise and figured he would let the issue drop and report a failed mission. As she and Jon neared the exit to the room she felt that Balmung was running toward them and at the last second stepped in front of Jon as Balmung's sword passed through her stomach. She looked at her love's eyes to see that was in complete shock and immediately withdrew his sword as quickly as he struck.  
  
"If you heard Enigma's words, then you must have heard mine," she said as her dark wings flourished from her back, "I asked him to spare your life, now I ask you to spare his."  
  
Jon turned and grabbed Jasmine as she was about to collapse and as he looked at Balmung, fire was in his eyes, "This isn't over Enigma. This sword will take your life and the world will be cleansed of your existance."  
  
"Whatever you say Lord Balmung," the silver haired heavy balde said as he played a sprite ocarina to exit the dungeon.  
  
Chapter 15 End

A/N: I like it but that's me, review with what you think and how I could make it better. Next chap might be poste till the end of this month but for sure by 8/25. LATES people.


	16. Chapter 16: Revolt

A/N: I got in a chap before my 8/25 deadline (pats self on back). I'm only happy for that bc I have work and I've been a little too tired to write at times. Here's another chap of my work so enjoy.

Chapter 16: Revolt  
  
As Jon carried Jasmine back into the Theta server root town, he gave her a healing potion for her wounds. The item did it's work and completely healed the damage that Balmung had done, but Jon had not figured out why for one Jasmine had protected Balmung and two why did she these strange black wings. He transported both of them to his new home Delta Frozen Silent Swordman and waited for her to wake up.  
  
After about another ten mintues she awoke, "Balmung don't...," she sat straight up and felt the cold snowy wind hit her.  
  
"He's not here, and don't worry about it. Nothing happened between me and him after you were injured. All I did was carry you out of the dungeon, patched you up, and brought you here," he sat by a fire he had made with his back to her. They sat there in silence for what seemed like hours when Jon broke the silence, "I need you to clarify some things for me, Jas."  
  
"Like what," taking a defesive.  
  
"For one, what's with the wings," Jasmine now noticed her sleek black wings shown, "and two why spare Balmung? On any normal day you would have helped me finish off that punk, but instead you told me to spare him. I was so exhausted from the fight, I couldn't do anything else but do what you said."  
  
Realizing she had been caught she confessed, "About the wings, Balmung gave them to me. About sparing him, that's because...," she couldn't say the words.  
  
"Because of what Jasmine," he turned to her infuriated, "Had you not stopped him, that fucker would have my head on his sword right now, and you tell me to spare his life!!? Unlike me, he would come back good as new after a short while, as to where I have no idea what will happen if I die here!!"  
  
"It's because, it's because," she tried to log out but found herself unable to, "what's going on?"  
  
"I'm not letting you leave until you answer me. Tell me why Balmung for some reason, gave you those wings, and why you made me let him live!"  
  
"Because I," she couldn't bare to tell him the truth, "owed him for saving my life while searching for you a while back."  
  
"BULL!! Tell me the truth now!!"  
  
She figured no excuse she could make up would appease him so she admitted it, "Becuase we're both in love with each other.  
  
He stood silent at what she said. His anger was still shown on his face, but after a few moment, he turned his back and a white portal appeared behind Jasmine, "Go, the portal is behind you. Leave, and know that if your little 'boyfriend comes after me again, I won't hold this sword back again. This is between us by the way, no one else will here a word of it, including my fight with Balmung, got it?"  
  
"Yes, not a word," she said with tears in her eyes as she passed through the portal.  
  
Balmung went to his meeting place where Lios was waiting with a sour face, "You failed horribly in you mission Balmung. How could you have not been able to kill one lowly player who is many levels below your own?"  
  
Balmung lowered his head in shame, "There were complications. He had much more strength than what I was told and his sword has to be the strongest thing I've ever seen. Why was I mis-informed?!"  
  
"You were on a need to know basis, and you should have been able to deal with it anyway, being who you are."  
  
"He is no ordinary AI that your Cobalt Knight deal with every day."  
  
"Don't blame your mistake on them Balmung."  
  
Balmung thought of what Enigma had told him before he had left, "Lios answer me a few questions, was Helba involved in this operation, and why not send the Cobalt Knights to deal with this problem?"  
  
Balmung's words struck a cord but he regained his composure, "No, that hacker was not involved in any way."  
  
Balmung saw through his lie, "And why not send out the Cobalt Knights?"  
  
"You said yourself that this AI is different, so CCcorp. took a different approach to this."  
  
"I wonder what would happen if I told Kamui about this," he began to write the email when his mail was deleted before he could send it.  
  
"I don't think we need you to go involving anyone else in this Balmung," Helba appeared with wand in hand.  
  
"So you were in on this after all, vile hacker," Balmung shouted at the wavemaster.  
  
"Of course, how else could have I have gotten you and Enigma together. Enigma would surely refuse to do anything with you unless it involved Skieth and you follow orders regardless of what they are," Helba laughed at Balmung, "You really are just a stupid boy for listening to this pig-head's orders."  
  
"I told you to let me deal with this Helba," Lios infuriated with her falshy entrance, "Now that Enigma knows that we're both after him, there's no way we can attack and get rid of him."  
  
"That's where you're wrong Lios. I don't intend to delete or kill Enigma like you, I intend to study him and figure out why he is in his current condition."  
  
"To think I was used by you both so easily," Balmung unsheathed his sword, "I told you if she had anything to do with this, to make sure I don't come back," he bolted straight for Lios with the intent to kill.  
  
Jon sat by his fire and thought over what had happened in the dungeon again. After Balmung and his attack's collided , they were both left in a near-death condition and unable to move for minutes. He then thought about his condition and wondered how he could possibly be where he was now and not dead like the other coma victims. Could the bracelet have protected him and if so then why. Since he knew next to nothing about the bracelet, he had to ask someone else for the answers he sought. Helba came to mind first but after the last two days, he save her as a last resort. None of friends knew more about the bracelet than he did so the only one left was Kite. He sent a flash mail to the twin blade and told him to meet in Dun Loireag.  
  
As Jon entered the city, he turned his attention to the recorder and thought he should save being that he hadn't since his incident with Skieth. He saw that Kite was there also along with a blademaster that looked a lot like a cat, and a wavemaster that Jon could have sworn was David except for the cap he wore.  
  
"Yo Kite, I had a few questions to ask you, but first, who're these people," Jon said as he ran to them.  
  
"Wow, what a familiar looking bracelet you have there," the cat said to him, inspecting Jon wrist.  
  
"That's Mia, and this is Elk," Kite motioned to the wavemaster, "He looks like your friend ChaosB1ade."  
  
"Yeah I thought that it was him when I saw him," he took another look at the shy wavemaster before turning to the cat player, "Can I ask what your looking at miss Mia was it?"  
  
She spoke to him without turning from his wrist for even a second, "Just looking at your bracelet. Wondering why it looks so similar to Kite but yet different in ways."  
  
"In what kind of ways Mia," Jon worried at what she could mean.  
  
"It's only that your bracelet for one seems a bit darker than Kite's. Another thing is that yours is much colder than his."  
  
They all went to a small alley where no one was could see them then Kite and Jon showed their bracelets for Mia to inspect further. She constantly looked back and forth, with slight nods and acting like a doctor, "Well I've been in blizzard type field for about the past week, so that explains the cold, but slightly darker, wonder why that is," Jon explained.  
  
"Has it been damaged recently, like been attacked or suffered a sudden impact?"  
  
"If you count a data drain attack then yeah."  
  
They all looked at him in shock like they were looking at a ghost. Kite was the first to say anything, "You ran into Skieth again? Was Aura being chased by him," he was grabbing at Jon's shirt and shaking him slightly.  
  
"I didn't see Aura at all."  
  
"What do you mean a data drain hit the bracelet though," Mia pondered.  
  
"Well, my friends and I went down into a dungeon where we ran into Skieth, and in the battle, Sakura was about to be hit with it when I got in the way of the attack," he crossed in front of his face and showed how he blocked the attack.  
  
"But didn't the attack make you disappear and go into a coma," Kite touching him and sort of inspecting him.  
  
"Hey cut it out," Jon pushed him off, being careful not to say too much, "Yeah I blocked the attack, but the bracelet shined extremely brightly, and I passed out from the attack."  
  
"D..did you log out right after that happened," Elk shyly asked.  
  
"No big, no one was hurt and we all got of there unharmed, Jon forced himself to say that with a straight face, "But I wouldn't recomend doing something like that."  
  
"I never would have thought it would protect anyone from the powers of data drain," Mia said aloud, "Just be gald that your not in a coma right now, Enigma. Well I have some buisness to attend to so if you'll excuse me, ELK!"  
  
Elk ran after her and stayed a few steps behind her tail. Kite turned to Jon and explained he had some mail to read and send and logged off. Jon inspected his bracelet once more and couldn't find what Mia said she saw. To him, it looked the same as it always had, but to his surprise though, when the bracelet faded away, it seemed to be absorbed by his wrist leaving a blue tattoo. The tattoo was light blue hexagons connected together around his wrist. He wondered what the hell had happened now that it seemed that the bracelet was now a part of him. He quickly returned to his home field and mailed Lan to come see him.  
  
Jasmine logged into Dun Loireag and wondered where Balmung was waiting for her. He had written her he had gone, since she hadn't seen him since the dungeon incident. After searching the town for a while she got mail telling her to meet them in their normal spot. She went and found bloody feathers scattered around the area. She gasped in horror of what could have happen to Balmung and found him by the lake. At the sight of his destroyed state, she nearly fainted and rushed to his aid.  
  
"Balmung what the hell happened to you," she brushed his hair away from his face to see it was scratched and bloody.  
  
"You..are...all in...danger," he struggled to say his word.  
  
"Who is in danger and why?"  
  
"Enigma and anyone who comes into contact with him will be deleted," Lios appeared behind her and stared straight at her with furious eyes.  
  
She laid Balmung gently back down on the ground and turned to the administrator, "Did you do this to him!?"  
  
"And what if I did? What can a lowly twin blade like yourself do?"  
  
Her face instantly burned with fire as her whole body became comsumed by the darkness of her wings, and became a living shadow, "You will die!!"  
  
The entire field went from a afternoon setting to the dead of night, making it impossible for Lios to see anything except the bloody angel. He felt something graze his shoulder but as he turned, he saw that no one was there. Another gust of air came at him and beads of sweat started to flow from his forehead. He saw a quick flash from off one of her blades and as he turned to it, he felt his back suddenly crack. As Lios fell to his knees, his sight was still a pitch black field as he heard storm clouds blow in from overhead.  
  
"RAI ROM"  
  
Sparks lit at Lios' feet and the sparks started swirling up his body providing the necessary light to see his attacker. He could only see swiling darkness in the shape of a woman with one black and one white dagger in her hands. He couldn't see any kind of expression on her face, but he could tell she was in a complete rage that wouldn't end unless one of them was dead. She used her RAI ROM attack again only for the fact that she could show herself to him, "Leave Enigma, my friends, and everyone alone and get back to your job, pig! If you don't I can make this MUCH worse," as the attack faded he shot an energy ball at her but saw that he had missed.  
  
Balmung rose to his feet and yelled out to her, "Angel, you've got your message across. Stop this before now before he does something drastic," at his words the storm stopped and light slowly returned to the field and the shadow known as DarkAngel was back with Balmung helpping him walk towards Lios.  
  
"You've got my message," she slashed his hat and as it fell to the floor, "Be sure you heed my warning," she lead Balmung away and gated out, "I have a know a place where you can stay but please forget the keywords that you see," she typed in Delta Frozen Silent Swordman.  
  
Chapter 16 End

A/N: Great special feature to my Wings of Darkness, huh? I will have another chap done by 8/25 bc that's my bday and it wouldn't be complete without me submitting a chap. Review so I know how you people like my work. LATES people.


	17. Chapter 17: Morganna

Disclaimer: See chapter 13

A/N: Yeah, today is my bday and I have another chap for people to read. I know my story is becoming a little predictable, but I think it's cool. I haven't gotten many reviews lately, but so what? I'll keep writing until I see it fit to stop. Enjoy people.

Chapter 17: Morganna  
  
Jon sat by his fire and waited for Lan, and as he heard someone warp into his field, he thought it was her. He turned and saw Jasmine and at first wondered what she would want so suddenly and then saw Balmung is her arms.  
  
"What the hell are you bringing him here for," he saw she was in no mood to discuss anything, "Fine he can stay here, but don't expect me to look after him while you're gone."  
  
"Thanks Jon, this really helps me out," she said as she brought Balmung near the fire, he was unconcious.  
  
"Why doesn't he just log out," anyone could tell Jon was annoyed that Balmung was there.  
  
"That's because he's probably unconcious in the real world too," she snapped at him. Realizing who she was talking to she was, "Sorry for that, it's just that a lot of things have happened in such a short time."  
  
"Whatever, I'm going to get some sleep, if Lan shows up, could you wake me up?"  
  
She acknowledged him and turned back to Balmung who had started to look better after being cleaned up a bit. She had just snapped when she saw Balmung in his condition, and found out that Lios was the one who had done this to him. The way she just lost control and assualted Lios frightened her, because she could only remember vaguely what happened. She thought of what Balmung and Lios had told her and thought of waking Jon, but decided she would tell him later. Hours passed when Lan entered the field and saw the other three people near the fire. She saw that Jasmine was half asleep and was keeping the fire going while Balmung was still asleep.  
  
"Enigma," Jasmine nudged the heavy blade, "Lina's here. Hey," he turned over so his face was away from her, "GET UP YOU LAZY BUM," she kicked his back which got him up.  
  
"Thanks for the wake up call," he groaned as he rubbed his back, "Hey Lina, finally found some time to play huh," he yawned as he said it.  
  
"I was out shopping, and just passing time," she said cheerfully considering what was around her, "What did you need to see me about?"  
  
He held up his wrist and showed his bracelet to her and let it fade back to the tattoo on it, "This."  
  
"What the hell," both the girls screamed as the saw it happen and checked their own wrists for similar tattoos, but found nothing.  
  
"Wierd huh? Well I guess the bracelet and I are now a part of each other."  
  
"Why would it suddenly do that now though is really strange," Lan grabbed his wrist and stared at it, "Maybe it's cause your stuck in that body."  
  
"That seems resonable but we have way of telling if that's for sure. Kite knows about as much as we do about the bracelet, and we know jack shit about it. Helba and I are not on good terms with each other right now."  
  
At those words Balmung sat straight up, "That evil hacker!!"  
  
"Oh yeah I meant to ask, when did he get here," Lan asked.  
  
"About a few hours ago and he was in really bad shape," Jasmine explained to her.  
  
"And you can thank that to Lios and that bitch," Balmung groaned.  
  
"Why would Lios do that to his own agents though," Lan asked him.  
  
Jasmine explained to her about the battle Jon and Balmung had and why they started the battle in the first place, "It seems that Lios didn't like you failing huh Balmung?"  
  
"Excuse me, who is Lios," Jon was baffled at the person they were talking about, and after telling him who he was, "So that's what you meant by administration is after me. How could one administrator do that to you Balmung?"  
  
"It wasn't just him, Helba was there as well and she did most of the damage. She plans to capture you and what makes you so different from other AIs."  
  
Jon smirked at him, "So you and this Lios guy think I'm some kind of AI that just hangs around in the world, interesting."  
  
A mail chime went off as Jon recieved some mail from Kite saying that he and Blackrose were about to confront Skieth and if he wouldn't mind helping out, "I've got something to do, I'll catch you guys later. DarkAngel, make sure he's gone by the time I get back," he motioned to Balmung as he gated out. He was told to go to Theta Chosen Hopeless Nothingness and meet up with them at the bottom of the dungeon and as he got there he saw the two players a little weary.  
  
"So you ready," Blackrose asked the swordman.  
  
"Ready as I'll ever be," Jon pulled his sword off his back and got set to attack, "Kite, you take lead," he allowed the twin blade to take command.  
  
They walked around the last floor and destroying the few enemies that were around. They got to the a large square room and saw the purple haze which normally signaled a large boss was in the next room. They all made last minute preperations and completely healed up so that they would be ready for anything Skieth could throw at them, minus data drain of course. Kite had masterblades equipped, while Blackrose had a Sakabatou. Jon shouldered his Tidal Sword and Blackrose growled at him, being that he had beat her to get that sword. They all proceeeded inside to find themselves on a barren chunk of rock that all too familiar to them all. Aura had come to them and before they knew it so was Skieth, in pursuit. They both floated in the air and out of their reaches, and Skieth held out his hand as his bracelet flickered into existance. Kite and Jon both wanted to stop what was about to happen but both knew they didn't have to power to reach them, and Skieth attacked Aura with data drain causing her data to be broken and scattered to the sky. After Skieth had finished dealing with Aura, he turned his attention to his visitors. He caught a glimpse of Jon and seemed surprised that the heavy blade had been there. He then teleported to them and and slammed his wand into the ground right in front of them. The resulting shockwave blew them all off their feet and damaged each of them heavily. As they rose to thier feet Skieth had pulled back his wand and readied to strike Kite. As the wand came down, Jon stepped in front of Kite and blocked the attack with his sword. Kite took the chance to heal everyone with healing drinks and Blackrose to start hacking at Skieth's back. The beast ultimately overpowered Jon and crushed him into the ground. He got back up slowly and felt his legs give out on him, then noticed that Skieth had wond up for another wand blow. He held his sword as a shield and was blown back to the edge of the platform they were on. He poured a healing potion on himself and rushed back to Skieth and called Blackrose to attack him with an attack skill. They both charged their swords.  
  
RUE DIVIDER  
GAN DRIVE  
  
The attacks hit Skieth on oppisite sides and caused the monster to fall down for a moment and yell out forcing both the heavy blades away from him. Kite caught Blackrose and healed her and tossed a healing drink at Jon and caused his blades to become enveloped in flames.  
  
TWIN DRAGONS  
  
The twin blade seemed to nimbly dodge every attempt Skieth made to hit him during the attack as he slashed continuasly at the horned beast. As he yelled at everyone to attack with skills Blackrose used her Gan Smash while Jon used his own Smash but of the Rue varity. Kite attacked with his Thunder Dance attack and caused Skieth to stagger back as the three warriors got back into formation. They charged him again, but Skieth attacked with OrRue Rom causing Blackrose to die and leaving Kite heavily injured while leaving the other heavy blade feeling refreshed. Kite revived his friend and recharged her lost SP while Jon kept the stone monster busy. Kite told Blackrose to strengthen Jon but the only thing she had was Ap Vaks and helped defend Jon against any kind of fire attack. Skieth then drilled the top point of his wand into Jon's stomach and lifted him into the air. The wand began to glow red and it was set ablaze. Jon felt his insides were being melted away, and passed out from the pain. Skieth then swung his wand, throwning Jon's seemingly lifeless body toward Kite and Blackrose.  
  
"What the hell was that," Blackrose frozen in horror at what had happened to him and went to inspect him while Kite fought off Skieth. She sat him up only to feel his entire body was cold. She felt like she was holding ice instead of a person in her hands as she poured a healing potion over his wound, "Enigma, wake up you idiot we're not done yet, you bastard," she heard Kite scream as Skieth slashed him with his other hand and killing the twin blade, "Come on I can't take him alone."  
  
His eyes snapped open and quickly rose to his feet with sword in hand, "Go heal Kite," he tossed her a revive and charged at Skieth again only to be blown back by another shockwave caused by the wand. Blackrose finished healing Kite and they all huddled together again. Skieth roared as a thin green barrier around him appeared and then shattered like glass. Jon and Kite knew that that Skieth was know in PROTECT BREAK and they could now weaken it. Before either of them had the chance Skieth raised his weaponless hand and the bracelet appeared on his wrist. Kite was about to rush forward and use his bracelet on the monster but Jon held him back, "Let me handle this," as he stepped in front of the twin blade and brushed his hand against his wrist and the bracelet came to life. Both active bracelets streched out glowed brightly, "Kite, if I don't make it out of this, tell Sakura that I'm gone and then get this bastard for me!! DATA DRAIN!" Both bracelets fired data at each other and the attacks collided causing everything to stop except Jon who was suddenly engulfed by a white light. As his eyes focused, he saw he was in an endless white room.  
  
"Who are you to have the power that only I contain," the voice of a woman echoed around him.  
  
"I'm a player of the world and who the hell are you and what's going on," Jon fired back while looking to see where the voice came from.  
  
"I'm the mother of this world I sensed my power being used twice at the same time so I intervened," the voice was calm and soothing.  
  
"Well whatever you did send me back so I can finish off that monstrousity."  
  
"I shall let you leave only under one condition," a figure of appeared in front of him. It was a human like figure with the model of a heavy axewoman dressed like Lan but with a blue dress and blue hair, "DEFEAT ME!!," Jon now could now lock onto the player and saw the character's name was Morganna.  
  
Chapter 17 End

A/N: Not my greatest work but it'll do in my book. Hope to have another chap out by next friday but that may be pushing it, being I start school Monday. LATES for now people. R&R now


	18. Chapter 18: Despair

Disclaimer: See chapter 14

A/N: With school back in session, my time for writing has been severely cut. That and Star Ocean will be out tmr so that cut my writing time to just about nothing. I guess that's okay being that I don't get any reviews for this fic anymore. I know my chapter are long and I really do plan to end this fic soon. Until then enjoy what I have here. If you read this fic, review it, or may your soul be absorbed by data drain after reading this.

Chapter 18: Despair  
  
The first thing that Jon noticed about Morganna is that she resembled a player he had read about on the boards. She looked like the leader of the Crimson Knights, Lady Subaru, who was to be feared if ever a player were to break any kind of rules. The only thing that was missing was Subaru's loyal guardian, Silver Knight. Before Jon could ask any more questions, Morganna was in front of him with ax back, ready to swing. He tried to parry the attack was completely overpowered and thrown across the endless white room. She ran to him with lightning fast speed and was on top of him ready to deal a quick deathblow. Jon held his sword in front of him as a shield and the blow pressed his sword to his face and heard a faint cracking noise. He pushed her away, but she spun her body and attempted a strike against his face. He managed to bat away her ax which lodged itself into the ground. He took this chance to get to his feet and noticed that his sword had started to crack where the ax had hit it. He knew that if his Tidal Sword was destroyed, he would stand no chance against Morganna, and decided to end this one-sided battle quickly. He charged at her, hoping she wasn't to free her ax in time, but luck was not with him. She pulled out he ax and slammed the back end into his side. He was instanly paralyzed by the pain and felt a sudden shock to his back as Morganna flipped the ax around and slammed the blunt end into his back. She continued her onslaught and stopped after every combination to allow Jon to heal himself. She loved watching him attempt to fight back with little success. Half an hour of punishment later, Morganna had suffered little scratches while Jon had been given injuries that would kill him in real life and had run out of options to heal himself with. He had used his sword to stand upright again and knew that if he had any chance of escape he would either have to use data drain , or immobilize her by freezing freeze her. They charged at each other with weapons glowing.  
  
RAI TORNADO RUE SMASH  
  
Both weapons collided and it became a deadlock, of which one person's strength would give out. Out of desperation, Jon slightly began to push Morganna back, and the power of his attack froze her right arm. He was about to overpower her when he fell forward after hearing a loud cracking sound. As he got back to his feet, he noticed his weapon had gotton a lot lighter and saw, that it had broken in half. From where Morganna had made the original crack, the blade had snapped in two, now leaving Jon completely defenseless against anymore attacks. He was too shocked to move and accepted defeat as he dropped the other half on the ground and bowed his head.  
  
Morganna cackled, "It's over. I shall now end your suffering," she held out her ax and pointed it straight at the demoralized heavy blade. A bracelet appeared at the end of the ax, and prepared to fire off a data drain. Jon made no movement to avoid the attack, he just stood motionless and awaited his fate. That bracelet fired data and as it began to get closer, Jon left wrist sprung forward on it's own accord and the bracelet on his wrist sprang to life. It absorbed the data drain attack and died away into his wrist. Morganna surprised by this development, "It seems you either aren't supposed to die here, or you're already dead, but you haven't accepted it yet. I'll leave you to your suffering," the blinding light that brought Jon there came back but this time had put him right back where he had been the first time it came. He was standing in front of Skieth who seemed mezmerized himself, with Kite and Blackrose behind him. He collapsed on the floor, he muscles were gone and couldn't move one bit. Kite had seen the data drains had canceled out and fired his own at Skieth causing the once supreme monster to become a peice of rock. Kite and Blackrose quickly destroyed the rock that was once Skieth and watched it crumble away. They healed Jon enough to where he could stand. He grabbed the peices of his sword that had somehow been there and stashed them away. As they were leaving, the peices or rock melted away and became a dark pool. They all got into a battle position thinking that Skieth wasn't truely defeated. The pool started to bubble and out the remains of Skieth came a more horrific sight. A creature larger than Skieth began to rise from out of the pool and roared as its body became fully visable. Its eyes flashed and all three of them were sent flying and were knocked out as they crashed into the floor. Each of their protection broke leaving them open if this new beast had data drain. Before the new monster could attack them, they were teleported away to Dun Loireag. Jon was the first of them to regain consciousness and checked to make sure Kite and Blackrose were fine, once he knew they would live, he went back to his home field and decided to recover there.

(0)

"Hey Lan, you ready for summer to start soon," David ran up behind her.  
  
"Yeah, I just want school to end so I can relax. Hey was going to the hospital today to check on how Jon's doing, want to come along," she seemed so calm saying that knowing her friend was in a coma.  
  
"Sure, why not. It'd be nice to see the real Jon and not Enigma for a change, even if he is sleeping."  
  
They went to the hospital where Jon's body has been sleeping for what had now been a month and worried if they would ever be able to save him. The receptionist noticed them and let them pass and as they got to Jon's room they heard a someone crying. They ran in thinking they worst, only to see Jon's mother crying on his chest.  
  
"What's going on," Lan walked up and tapped Jon's mother's shoulder, "Something wrong with him today?"  
  
"No, and that's the problem," her eyes still full of tears, "The doctors are losing hope that he will ever come out of it. The only reason they've let him be on life support for this long is because they say his brain patterns have been eratic, like he's not asleep. Plus, my insurance called saying that they're going to stop paying for his medical bills soon and I don't have the kind of money to keep him here."  
  
"Isn't there some kind of law that's keeps the doctors from doing that kind of thing," David said calmly.  
  
"Not as long as the doctors think he won't come out of it."  
  
After another ten minutes they left the hospital still shocked at what they had been told. According to his mother, Jon had another two weeks before the doctors would take him off life support. Lan ran through her head on how to tell Jon this and how he would react to such news. She logged on and decided to visit her friend and be the bearer of bad news.

(0)

As he felt the cold air hit him, Jon felt slightly better after being completely overwhelmed twice in one day. He went to his camp, to find the fire had be put out, and everyone had gone. After his encounter with Morganna, fighting Balmung would have relieved some of his anger. He made a new fire and reflected back to the battle with Morganna. She had more power in her ax than he had in his entire body, which he attributed to using Lady Subaru's character. He pulled out the remains of his sword and saw there was no way he could repair it on his own. His sword that was said to be the best sword made for heavy blades, but was destroyed by someone calling themself "the mother of the world." His train of thought was inturrupted by a sudden pain in his chest. He grasped it for dear life as he felt something being torn out of it. The pain lasted for one minute but for him seemed to last for an hour and then it faded just as fast as it had come. He sat motionless wondering what that could have been, it felt similar to pain of data drain.  
  
"Jon, how you doin," a calm voice said from behind him and tapped his shoulder.  
  
In a reflex he threw his arm back knocking down the person, and surprised that it was Lan he had knocked over, "Ack. Sorry about that Lan. You just startled me," he helped her up, and froze as he looked at her, reminding him of Morganna. Lan must have used the same character model because the only difference between Lan and Morganna was her voice, a pink dress instead blue, and raven black hair.  
  
"What's wrong with you? You seem like you've seen a ghost," she waved his hand in front of his face.  
  
He regained his composure, "It's nothing. It's been a long day, he yawned to ease her mind, "How come you're here anyway? You normally don't come see me unless I call you or your tagging along with Kelly or David."  
  
"I have some bad news to tell you," tears formmed in her eyes, "It's about the real world."  
  
"If it has to do with my parents or me in the hospital, then please don't tell me anything. I have too many things to deal with here, and I don't need to think about problems I can do nothing about. For one I have Balmung tailing me and attempting to kill me, administrators doing the same, Skieth, and now some entity called Morganna. Oh yeah, I almost forgot, Skieth is gone. Kite, Blackrose and I killed that bastard."  
  
"You don't seem too happy about that," realizing the situation, "Oh I see what you mean," she didn't have the heart to tell him about what was going to happen to him in the real world and add on more saddness, "Sorry to have bothered you. I see you have you have a lot of things going on here so it's better that you don't here what I have to say now. I be going then," she turned to log out but she felt her arm held back.  
  
"Do you mind staying with me until I fall asleep Lan? I just don't feel right being here by myself for tonight."  
  
She saw that he was really shaken up, "Yea, I don't have anything to do," they sat by the fire and talked for a bit before Jon finally passed out in her lap. She laid him down and let him sleep as she turned to log out someone else was entering the field. She quickly put out the fire and hid herself and Jon. At first she thought it was maybe Kelly or one of the others but then she noticed multiple people were entering the field. Each of them were fully covered in silver armor from head to toe and had CCcorp. logos on the right side of the breastplate. The last two to enter was a heavy axewoman and a female wavemaster.  
  
The axewoman stood silent for a second then made a few hands signals that Lan couldn't see very well then yelled to the soldiers, "Everyone spilt up in teams of two and capture the AI. I want him alive so I can delete him personally," the soldiers ran in different directions.  
  
As one of the soldiers reached the abandoned camp he shouted to everyone to meet with him. As the axewoman approached the soldier saluted, "Lady Kamui, this camp has been recently abondoned. He's probably still arond here ma'am."  
  
The axewoman turned to the wavemaster, "Magi, get me the gate log to this area now!"  
  
"Hai," the wavemaster brought up a small screen and quickly searched through information and then handed the small screen to the axewoman, "Ma'am."  
  
Kamui quickly looked over the logs and handed back the screen back to Magi, "He's not alone. An axewoman named Lina entered here about 30 mintues before we did. She may be a player who stumbled across this field in a random word search or aiding the AI, either way secure her and bring her to me. MOVE OUT!!"  
  
Fortunatly for them Jon had made a hiding spot under one of the large ice boulders in the area that Lan had carried him to. She wondered how in the world he could sleep through this and as she got to the spot she attempted to wake him up but proved useless. They entered to spot and Lan covered up the hole with snow, but left some room for her to see what was going on outside. She wanted to gate out and just run from them, but she couldn't leave Jon here alone to fend for himself. The soldiers wandered around the field for about ten mintues before reporting back to Kamui.  
  
"You idiots, he hasn't logged out so he has to be here and so does that axewoman. You three search the dungeon to see if either of them is down there," as three of the soldiers ran off Kamui turned back to Magi, "You're sure no one else is here and that neither of them have gated out?"  
  
"Hai, Lady Kamui. The logs have not been tampered with and it states that only the AI, Enigma, and that axewoman, Lina, are here. No one else has entered the field nor have they gated out since we arrived ma'am."  
  
"Very well, we'll just have to search harder then," she sounded pleased that she was unable to find them right away, "Magi you're with me, and you two stay by the camp and see if he comes back there."  
  
The other to soldiers ran back to the camp while Lan's attention was truely on the two officials. The axewoman, Kamui, as she casually walked around the field with the Magi at her side. Kamui went up to some of the other ice boulders around the field and stopped and seemed to investigate them. Magi recived mail as the loud mail chime could be heard from halfway across the field clearly and Lan quickly put a silent warning on all incoming messages. She attempted to access Jon character data to do the same and after some searching through some wierd data, she successfully did the same for him. She checked back on the two officers to see that they were standing directly at the boulder where she was hiding. She almost screamed out of surprise, but caught herself before any sound came from her mouth. She saw that all Kamui would have to do is look down and she would most likely see the hole leading to their hideout. Kamui tapped her ax against the boulder and had Magi run a few diagnostic programs on it like she had the others. Magi shook her head in dissappointment and Kamui growled in anger. As they began to walk away, Lan breathed a sigh of relief that they hadn't been spotted. The three that had been sent to the dungeon returned thirty minutes later, and Kamui showed her anger even more. She slammed her axe into the ground using a Gan Drive attack in the process.  
  
"They must have logged out, and thus, the records wouldn't record them leaving. Damn it," Kamui huffed.  
  
"Ma'am," one of the soldiers stepped forward, "Why would the higher ups want you, the leader of the Cobalt Knights, go on a simple AI hunt when there's that hacker, Helba, on the loose?"  
  
Kamui shot him a death glance that made him cower in fear, "You have your orders and I have mine," she walked closer to the soldier and held her axe right next to his neck, "I follow my orders down to the last word. Never make the mistake of questioning my orders."  
  
"Yes, L-La-Lady K-Kamui."  
  
"But if you must know it seems that this particular AI has faced Balmung of the Azure Sky and survived. Instead of letting that failure make another attempt, administrators turned the file over to me. Magi, assign two of our best to watch the chaos gate in Mac Anu and have them report to me directly once they've spotted the AI. The rest of you are dismissed."  
  
The soldiers gated out and Lan crawled out of the hole, but had Jon stay down there. If those soldiers came back while he was asleep, he would stand no chance against all of them. She heard of the Cobalt Knights, but what struck her the most was that Kamui had come to get Jon and not just plain soldiers. She covered up the entrance to the opening as much as she could and gated out to Mac Anu.  
  
Chapter 18 End

A/N: I'll try to hurry up and finish this but there are no garantees on this. School/Games/Other fics are keeping me from finishing this. I was planning to make a sequel to this in the time of .HackLegend of the Twilight Bracelet, and if I don't here any objections, then I'll do it. Maybe that will get some of you to review, but I could just be kidding myself. Whatever, LATES people.


	19. Chapter 19: Prelude to the End

Disclaimer: See chapter 14

A/N: I finished chapters 19 and 20 sort of quickly cause I wan to end this fic soon. I've put unknown amount of hours into it and I want to see it done so I can start work on my other ones. Hope you enjoy.

Chapter 19: Prelude to the End  
  
"Data Drain," Jasmine yelled as she transformed the once unstoppable data bug back into a simple wyrm. She then slashed the beasts wings until crashed to the ground and died. She had been running around numerous fields, destoying all monsters in her path to get her mind off current developments. To her, it seemed that Jon hadn't told anyone else about her being invovled with Balmung and figured she should tell her other friends face to face before they found out. After Jon took off after getting that mail, Balmung logged out soon after along with Lan and Balmung hadn't been on-line since. She had mailed him many times but had yet to recieve any kind of reply. She had noticed more and more CCcorp. personal walking around the root town lately and thought that they were on alert by Lios' order. After she got tired off destroying monsters for one night, she returned to Mac Anu and was grabbed by two soldiers as soon as she stepped out of the gate, "What the hell are you two doing?"  
  
"Just tell us what we want to know and you can be on your way," one of the soldiers said to her. She noticed the armor on them and knew they were part of the Cobalt Knights, "What's your screen name?"  
  
"DarkAngel."  
  
"This is the one who was with Balmung a while back isn't it," the other soldier asked his partner.  
  
"Yeah, a female twin blade in black and blue. Sorry to bother you ma'am, we are on watch for a certain player. We have to search everyone who comes through this gate."  
  
"Who is it, and what has he or she done?"  
  
"All we know is about the player is that he or she is a heavy blade named Enigma. What that player has done is unknown to me, but it has been ordered by Lady Kamui that he be captured and brought to her."  
  
"Thanks for the info. I'll tell you guys if I see him around," she turned around to re-enter the chaos gate but was held back the soldiers.  
  
"May we ask where you'll be gating to?"  
  
"Delta Frozen Silent Swordman. I heard there are powerful monsters there that give you quick level ups."  
  
"I'm sorry but that area has been closed off by CCcorp. Sorry for the incovience."  
  
"No problem," she walked away to the recorder and asked if Jon had come by there lately. The recorder shook his head, and she walked to the bridge and stared into the water. She mailed Jon to tell him about the knights standing guard at the chaos gate and to not use his screen name if he ran into them. She got no reply and wondered if he was still angry at her for the whole Balmung thing. She contacted Kelly and David to see if they were available. They came to her a few minutes later with slightly depressed looks.  
  
"What's wrong you guys? Bad day at work," she chuckled trying to cheer them up," they told her about the situation at the hospital, "Damn, we can't get a hold of him here except through mail and he isn't responding. Those two guys at the gate said his field is closed off and we can't use our bracelets in front of them."  
  
"How about one of us distract them and the other two go to the field," David suggested.  
  
"It sounds someone nominated themselves to be the bait," Kelly laughed as she pushed David forward.  
  
"Alright, I see where this is going," David brushed back his hair and took a deep breath as he ran back to the chaos gate.  
  
"I'll make some fog so we can get by without the guards noticing us," Kelly said as she dipped her wand into the river and fog soon covered all of Mac Anu. As David walked up to the guards, Kelly and Jasmine began to sneak around them when they heard two screams. They looked down to see a large dark pool had formed.  
  
"CB1ade, you idiot. When we said distract them, we didn't mean hurt them," Jasmine yelled out.  
  
David walked up to them, "Well, at least we can break through the protection without anyone noticing and those two can't say who did this," both the girls shook their heads with a sigh as David walked up to the chaos gate and pulled out some virus cores into his bracelet and stepped through the gate. As they reached the snowy field, they noticed many things were different than before. The camp had been raided and completely destroyed, and there was little of who had done it. They noticed a small knife that had looked undamaged and stuck out of of the fire remains. They knew that was a signal that Jon had moved to one of the hideouts he made in the field. After they found where he was and noticed he was asleep, they wondered just how long he had been down there. They inspected him to see if he was alright being that his HP looked like it was completely gone. He laid there motionless, and without showing anysigns of life and Kelly began to fear the worst had happened. He then sat straight up clutching his chest and screaming in pain. His body twitched and cunvulsed like he was having a seisure, and screamed the entire time. They wondered what was wrong with him, and noticed that part of his legs were becoming distorted and started to dissolve.  
  
"So this is what you meant Morganna," Jon shouted through his screams. His friends confused at what he was saying, "I refuse to die and let you win," his legs became whole again as he slouched over gasping for breath.  
  
"Jon," Kelly inched toward him and gently grabbed his shoulder, "Are you okay?"  
  
Still experiencing slight pain, he laid back down and stared into her eyes, "I honestly have know idea. I feel like I could be gone at any given second and have no idea why that is."  
  
"I'm gonna go check something," David said as he logged out.  
  
"How long have I been out?"  
  
"Can't say, but Lios has made his move to get you," Jasmine relaying the info about the two guards in Mac Anu.  
  
"Maybe you could stay in Theta server until you feel better," Kelly pouring healing drinks on him.  
  
"It wouldn't help where I went. As long as I'm stuck here, Lios can find me anytime he wants," Jon having a depressed look on his face.  
  
"You seem more down than normal. What's troubling you," the wavemaster asked caringly.  
  
"Just wondering how I get out of this body and back to my own."  
  
"We kill Skieth, that's how," Jasmine blurted out  
  
"I did that already. That's what I left for when you brought Balmung here. Kite, Blackrose, and I defeated Skieth."  
  
The two girls seemed shocked at what he had told them. They stared at him and he wasn't joking with them on this, "Then why are you still here," Kelly the first to react.  
  
"I believe that is in the hands of Morganna, the so called 'mother of the world'," Jon told them about his battle with the heavy axewoman that looked like Subaru, "She may be the key to this while thing.  
  
"So how do we get in contact with her," Jasmine asked him.  
  
"I only know of one way, and that may be the wrong way to do this."  
  
"Well, what is it?"  
  
"Two of us fire Data Drains, at one another."  
  
"Forget I asked."  
  
Kelly smiled at him and laughed, "Why don't we do something to get your mind off of all of this?"  
  
He smiled back at her, "What did you have in mind?"  
  
"How about we three enter a tournament. I heard there is going to be one to celebrate the Lambda server re-opening."  
  
"That cool, but I'm weaponless," Jon pulled out his shattered sword.  
  
"No need to explain. We can get it repaired in Carmina Gadelica," Jasmine slapped him on the back as they helpped him out of the field. As they reached the city of perpetual night, Jon had regained most of his strength and could walk without any help. Kelly said she would go tell the recorder to enter them in the tournament and left Jasmine to help Jon get his sword fixed.  
  
"You haven't told them about Balmung or you little 'modification', have you," Jon asked suavely.  
  
"So what if I haven't," a black feather was in his hand, "You told me it was between us, so I've found no reason to tell them. How did you know I didn't tell them anything, anyways?"  
  
"You were trying to hide them from Sakura just now, and I know it's between us. I haven't told a soul about you and Balmung, not like I can," he chuckled.  
  
They took the broken sword to the blacksmith and he told them that he would have the sword in perfect condition within ten minutes and asked Jon to leave his screen name with him as well as a voice identification. Kelly ran up to them with a small paper in her hands, and a huge smile on her face.  
  
"We'll be called when our match is ready by our team name," her smile hadn't faded one bit.  
  
"I can only guess what our team name is too," Jasmine sighed.  
  
"Team Naruto-chian," her and Jon sighed.  
  
"No!!! I'm not that predictable you know, we're Team Konoha!!!"  
  
"Close enough," both shouted at her.  
  
"What's the prize for winning," Jon asked enthusiastically.  
  
"First place team gets a preview copy of an expansion set to the world that has more character classes in it, and a weapon creation kit that's good for one weapon. Second place team gets a Golden Grunty for each team member and third get a rare item for each player," she informed them.  
  
"I hope there some good classes in that expansion set," Jasmine squealed.  
  
"I can replace my broken sword or make a similair one with a different element," Jon laughed, "You see any of our potential oppenents?"  
  
"I think I saw Lina entering as well with CB1ade, and Blackrose with Kite and Mistral."  
  
"Looks like this tournament will be interesting," Jon thought, and in the back of his mind he thought maybe a little too interesting.  
  
Chapter 19 End


	20. Chapter 20: Oppresion by the System

Chapter 20: Oppression by the System  
  
Walking around Carmina Gadelica before their match was a refreshing experience for everyone. The town looked like an acutally city and not a small village like Mac Anu had. Jon had gone back to the blacksmith to retrieve his restored Tidal Sword, and it had felt lighter than when he had first gotten it. Taking a few practice swings, he liked the feel of his sword and went to tip the blacksmith when the tradesman grabbed his right wrist and had it a strong grip on it.  
  
"What the hell are you doing," Jon struggled but couldn't get his wrist free.  
  
"You're a fool to leave your screen name and voice with an NPC that's controlled by CCcorp.," a rough voice replaced the once scottish accent came from the portly blacksmith.  
  
"So your with the Cobalt Knights I've been hearing about," no other player had come near the weapon shop and no one else was in listening range.  
  
"Wrong, I'm the one who gives them orders, and the one who tracks down little 'bugs' like you," sounding irritated.  
  
"So you must be Lios then, the administrator who has a bounty on my head, and sent Balmung after me," the heavy blade sounding arrogant.  
  
Shocked that he was found out, "Who told you something like that?"  
  
"Some good informants. You can't keep your subbordinates in check, and you can't even send good ones to take me out either. Are you good for anything?"  
  
"Quiet you insignificant excuse for data. I could delete you here and now if I wanted to," the blacksmith's face turning a dark shade of red.  
  
"But wouldn't that cause a scene and numerous complaints sent to your front desk? That and wouldn't players be worried that their character could be deleted at anytime by some unknown administrator," Jon asked knowing full well Lios couldn't do one thing to harm him without causing a commotion.  
  
Angered at the possition he knew he was in, "I could handle the paperwork, and we could always say that you're a hacker," thinking he saw the giant arena that was set up on the other side of town, "Just a thought, are you entered in the tournament?"  
  
"Yeah, why do you ask, pig?"  
  
"I have another way to make sure you're deleted that will be easier to cover up," Lios chuckled as the blacksmith released his wrist, "Good luck surviving in the tournament."  
  
"Attention," a calm voice came from speakers set up around the town, "all shops will be closing once the tournament is underway. Please stock up on items and weapons now while you still can. The tournament shall begin at 3PM. That is all."  
  
"Damn," he saw that it was a little past 2 and he had to find DarkAngel and Sakura plus stock up on items.  
  
The twin blade of his team came running to him as he was finishing buying Healing Drinks, "Bad news. The leader of the Cobalt Knights, Kamui, and Balmung have entered as a team, as a last minute entry."  
  
"If it comes to it, can you fight him," Enigma's demeanor switched from friendly to serious, "plus when I have to, could you let me kill him?"  
  
Tears started to run from her eyes and whispered, "Yes. If it comes to it, then I will fight him, and I won't stop you from doing what you have to do."  
  
"I only hope you can back those words up. Any word from Sakura?"  
  
"Only that she was buying items a while ago, and that she was going to talk to Lina and ChaosB1ade. You nervous about this tournament? A lot of good players are showing up, and some with the backing of the company," refering to Kamui and Balmung.  
  
"Slightly, but I never let it show. We should find out some of the rules from the recorder so we now what kind of surprises there will be," as they reached the recorder they asked if there were any stipulations for the tournament.  
  
"As of now, the will a handicap placed on every player for each match that lasts that match. It could range from: no weapon usage, no item usage, double SP cost, double damage, half speed," he listed many more handicaps that would be placed, "The handicap will be determined by random deciscion. Is there anything else that I can clarify?"  
  
"Team of two or one won't recieve any kind of bonus for fighting against teams of three," Jasmine asked.  
  
"Nope. If players decided to go solo, then they fight that way with no additional help against three or two. Anything else?"  
  
They shook their heads and found Kelly along with their two other friends, "Didn't think you would enter Lina, but then entered with ChaosB1ade here," Jasmine asked.  
  
"Hey, he useful sometimes," Lan laughed, "It gives us more of a chance at winning that expansion set and weapon creator. You know whoever wins can send it to the losers."  
  
"Then maybe I won't help you Lina," David turned around on his heels.  
  
"Hey Lina, I meant to ask you, what happended after I fell asleep," Jon asked.  
  
"You just woke up? Jeez, you've been out for three days," Lan said. She told him about Kamui and then Cobalt Knight strike force.  
  
"So that's why Kamui entered with Balmung as a last minute entry," Jon said. He told them about Lios's threat and how he probaly thought Balmung and Kamui were placed in to kill him. They made last minute preperations and then split into their respective teams until it was time for the tournament to begin.  
  
Chapter 20 End

A/N: I'm almost done with chap 21 but my job and school will keep me from doing anything but those for this week and maybe next as well. It will A LOT longer than my normal chaps as this one was A LOT shorter. I plan to be done with it in another 3-4 chaps. LATES.


	21. Chapter 21: Hollow Victories

Disclaimer: I don't own the right to any of the characters in the story except Enigma, Sakura (my version), DarkAngel, Lina (again, my version), and ChaosB1ade and even then it was names my friends picked out. All others I'm borrowing, so don't sue me over anything.

A/N: I went on a writing spree after I posted my last two chaps. Don't get pissed just bc this chap is incredably long. I didn't plan to make it this long but it just happened. Enjoy.

Chapter 21: Hollow Victories  
  
At 2:50, another annoucement came telling all participants to enter the arena right away. As soon as everyone had entered the arena a man in green and tan robes had entered with a smilair colored hat on. His face was rough and as he spoke the voice matched his face, "Greetings players. I, Lios, would like to welcome you to this tournament celebrating the re-opening of the Lambda server. We at CCcorp. and Altimit would like to thank you, the players for continuing to play even with these rumors of comtose players, and the closing down of many of the servers. We will be re-opening the servers as time passes and we resolve the situaton. On that note, I shall now explain the rules for this tournament. Before you enter your first match, each of you will scanned for any illegally modified equipment or character data. Exceptions are appearance mods. If you are caught with illegal equipment, then you will be ejected from the tournament and your team will have to do without you. Next, the rumors of handicaps are true. Before every match begins, one handicap will be chosen out of this," A bingo ball dropper appeared next to him, "There are many handicaps in this cage, some good, some bad. You will have to adjust your strategy for each match. Matches end when each player from one team is dead, there will be no surrendering, not that any of you would surrender, and once dead a team member can only be revived by Rip Mean. Finally, all the shops are closed like the announcement said earlier. You will not be allowed to buy any more items than what you are carrying, nor can you go to the Elf's Haven and switch weapons and armour. If you forgot to bring something along with you, then tough. Now on to the reason why you all entered this tournament, the rewards for winning: First shall recieve a preview to our new expansion set and a weapon creator. Second shall recieve a Golden Grunty, and third shall recieve a random rare item. If there are no questions, then let the tournament begin," a large display of fireworks appeared behind him annoucing the tournament was underway.  
  
Jon sat near the grunty ranch and was feeding his new baby grunty some Mandragoras, and White Cherries. He was inturrpted when one of the speakers called out, "Team Konoha, and Team Mandy please report to the arena. Your match will begin in 5 minutes, and if any member of your team is late, then your team will go without. That is all."  
  
"Finally. I be back little grunty with some more food for you," he walked to the gateway to the arena and meet with Jasmine and Kelly, "You ladies ready?"  
  
"As we'll ever be," they told him nervously.  
  
As they began to walk through the gate, they were stopped by two of the Cobalt Knights, "We must scan to make sure you are not using any illegal equipment. This will only take a few seconds," their bodies were enveloped in a green light that lasted for a few seconds then faded, "Players Sakura, Enigma, and DarkAngel are cleared to fight. Please proceed into the arena and good luck."  
  
"The worst is over. I thought they were going to get us for our bracelets," Jon whispered, "That scan made me feel violated too."  
  
"If you were disqualified, then Lios couldn't have Balmung and Kamui take you out, and we're agents for him, so of course we were cleared," Kelly said.  
  
"Let's get this match over with so we can get those prizes," Jasmine laughed as they entered the arena.  
  
The gate on the other side opened revieling a female blademaster, and a male long arm. The blademaster had dark pink armour that covered her whole body except her head, and her hair was blonde and came to points that looked like horns. She looked pissed off at something and she glared at the long arm who seemed puzzled. He was completely bald, pale skinned, about six and a half feet, completely covered in a black cloak, and his spear looked more like a scythe.  
  
"Grim, where's Billy," the blademaster said with an extremely angered voice.  
  
"I have no idea where dat idiot ran off to Mandy. Maybe he got himself killed falling on his own axe or falling off da bridge near da chaos gate," the long arm then laughed evily for no reason.  
  
"The match begins in two mintues and if he isn't here, heads will roll. Most likely yours and theirs," she pointed her sword toward Team Konoha.  
  
Suddenly a strange sound of someone laughing came from the gate behind Team Mandy. A heavy axeman began to rush into the arena, but was stopped to be scanned and was eventually let in. He ran in still laughing as he stopped a few feet away from Mandy, "Hey there Mandy, did you do something with you hair," a obviously stupid voice came from the axeman. He had on a red helmet, that matched the red and white armour that covered his whole body, he was smaller than most heavy axeman, but was still about 6 feet.  
  
Mandy walked up to him and punched him straight in the face, "You almost got here late Billy and then our decoy plan wouldn't have worked. Well maybe I could have replaced you with Grim, but it wouldn't have been the same."  
  
"Sorry, I was running through town and I fell down and," Billy started to explain.  
  
"You fell on your axe and killed yourself," Grim said eagerly.  
  
"How did you know?"  
  
"Enough chit-chat, Billy's here and that's all that matters. Lets kill these guys and get this match over with," Mandy yelled at her team mates.  
  
Now to decide which handicap will be placed for this match," Lios pulled one the balls from the cage, "All strengthening and weakening skills will be sealed for this match," the arena distorted for a second then went back to normal, "Begin!"  
  
"Billy, go after the wavemaster, Sakura. Other than that, Operation Wonder Battle," Mandy shouted as she charged at DarkAngel.  
  
"Sakura, just avoid the axeman and we'll take care of him. Enigma, help me out with this control freak," Jasmine called out.  
  
As Mandy reached DarkAngel she gave two quick stabs, but missed as DarkAngel simply jumped over her sword and flipped over her. She slashed with both her blades in an 'X' pattern but simply scratched the blademaster's armour. Mandy turned around with fire in her eyes and on her sword as she used her VAK REVOLVER attack to melt away part of DarkAngel's hand armour. She prepared to quickly use another VAK REVOLVER but was stopped as Enigma held back her sword with his own. He grinned at her as the two blades gave off a little steam from her attack. Enigma's sword started to glow a faint blue, but was distracted by Billy running into him, and accidently making a large wound with his axe.  
  
"Sakura, freeze this dumbass before he causes any more trouble for us," Enigma yelled as he pulled the axe out of his leg. He looked at Billy, who was laughing as he stood up and apoligized for running into him. Snowflakes began to swirl at Billy's feet and Enigma chuckled at him, "I'm sorry that you had to die too quickly," Sakura's ORRUE ROM hit Billy with a tornado of ice which after the attack dissipated, left him in a near death condition. Enigma charged up his sword while the tornado was hitting Billy and unleashed his RUE SMASH attack which froze Billy completely.  
  
"Cool. Look Grim, I'm a Billysicle," Billy laughed as his ghost laughed uncontrolably.  
  
"Well Billy lasted longer than I thought he would. Grim are you just going to stand there while these guys kill me," Mandy yelled at her ally.  
  
"Actually, yes. I'm going to sit here and watch as dese tree tear you limb from limb," the long arm laughed evily at his leader.  
  
"You'll pay for this Grim," Mandy yelled as DarkAngel found a weak spot in her armour and killed her as she stabbed both her daggers into her sides. Mandy's ghost glared evily at Grim as Team Konoha looked puzzled.  
  
"You let your teammate die," Sakura asked the long arm, "Why would you let that happen?"  
  
"That little girl terrorizes me in da real world, so it was time I messed with her for a change," the long arm laughed evily at the ghost of his fallen comrade, "Now to finish you three off and advance to the next round," He gripped his scythe tighter and swung horizontally, slicing DarkAngel in half and killing her instantly.  
  
"What the hell? Sakura, first aid," Enigma called out so that the wavemaster would revive DarkAngel.  
  
"Dat won't do any good. The Reaper's Scythe has da power to kill in one swing," he laughed evily again as he swiped at Enigma trying to kill him as fast as he did DarkAngel. Sakura started he chant to revive the fallen twin blade and as she finished, a white light covered DarkAngel and she became whole and living again. The now revived DarkAngel became infuriated with the long arm, and her shoudlers sprouted shadows that formed into the shape of ghostly black wings and flew straight at the long arm. All the spectators watched in awe as they saw the twin blade deliver flying slashes at blazing speed that Grim couldn't counter. After leaving Grim in a defenceless position she stood over him and turned back to her teammates.  
  
"The fight is to the death," Lios bellowed.  
  
"We know that you pig-head," DarkAngel snapped, "We were just thinking of the flashiest way to finish him. Sakura, if you will."  
  
Sakura's wand began to glow red as she started chanting her spell and suddenly four giant balls of fire appeared above Grim and swirled around him. The fireballs crashed down on the long arm, and ignited his body and killing him a few seconds later.  
  
Lios stood from the chair he was sitting in, "The winner is Team Konoha," some of the spectators cheered as they walked out of the arena.  
  
"Not to bad for our first win. They could have been harder, or at least an actual team," Kelly laughed.  
  
"I know, they were only fighting with each other and using each other," Jasmine said.  
  
"If all our battles are this easy then we'll the proud owners of a new weapon creation kit," Jon shouted.  
  
"I wouldn't be celebrating to early," a woman's voice said from out of nowhere.  
  
They all turned to see Kamui and Balmung, "We can finally have that rematch I've wanted Enigma," the blademaster said calmly.  
  
"Just don't die in the early rounds, or we would feel cheated," Jon chuckled. He then turned his attention to Kamui and looked her over, "So, you're the leader of the Cobalt Knights?"  
  
"And what about it," Kamui snapped back.  
  
"It's just that you don't look too impressive."  
  
She almost charged him and would have killed him that second but Balmung held her back, "Control yourself Kamui. It's not yet time, and we can't attack anyone outside the arena. Let's go," he saw Kamui had not taken her eyes off Enigma, "NOW!!."  
  
"Your head will be mine Enigma," Kamui proclaimed as she started walking away.  
  
"That's what Balmung said," he yelled back to her.  
  
Jon and his team watched some of the others matches including Lan and David's which they won because they were facing two heavyblades and blademaster and the handicap was that weapons were unusable so David just beat his opponents down with dark skills. The tournament went on for another hour before it had reached the quarter finals and each of the teams still in, had gone through 4 matches already. The remaining teams were: .Hackers, Konoha, Slayers, Nitemare, Balmung and Kamui, Defect, Piros, and Syck.  
  
Lios stood in front of the remaining teams, "As a token of good faith, the Elf's Haven will be re-opened for only 10 minutes. Get whatever equipment you need because it won't open again till the tournament's over. The next match between Team .Hackers and Team Konoha will begin in 15 minutes."  
  
"I hear that's Kite's team," Kelly said cheerfully.  
  
"Wonder if Blackrose has gotten any stronger since the last time I fought her," Jasmine thought aloud.  
  
"She helped me and Kite beat Skieth so I would say yeah, but any of their team could have picked up new weapons and armour," Jon said to them with his head down.  
  
"Something bothering you mister gloomy," Kelly trying to see his face.  
  
He lifted his head only to have a large smile, "Just keeping my focus. We have to keep winning so that we can win those prizes. Plus, wouldn't be cool if we faced Balmung and Kamui in the finals, or David and Lan?"  
  
"Is that even possible?"  
  
"I looked at the brackets and when we get to the finals, we'll either face Balmung or David."  
  
"Don't you mean 'if' we make it to the finals," Jasmine playfully laughed.  
  
He gave her a death glare, "Never 'if', only when."  
  
"I'm going to get a few staves so I have spells of every element ready," Kelly said as she headed away from the stadium toward the elf's haven.  
  
Jon had gotten back into the position he was in and Jasmine noticed his hands were shaking uncontrollably, "Get a hold of yourself man. It's only a tournament."  
  
"For you it's only a tournament to see who the best. For me, it's a fight for my very existance every day. That and I haven't felt more alone then living in this god forsaken hell hole of a game. If I could end it, then I would, but I can't so I do what I can to keep myself alive and hope that you guys can find some why to help me out of this," tears rolled down his face as he said this.  
  
"If there's anything I can do then let me know," Jasmine walked up a grabbed his hand.  
  
"Answer me one question then. How am I doing back in reality, and give me the truth."  
  
She pondered whether to tell him everything but as she saw how depressed he looked she knew she had to, "Well it seems that the docs at your hospital are going to take you off life support in a little more than a week. They don't expect your body to live much longer after that, day tops."  
  
"Those bastards. Why though?"  
  
"Your insurance said they ain't paying anymore and your mom can't so they have no alternative."  
  
His face went from depressed to a mixture of rage and depression then relief, "Thanks Jas."  
  
"Team .Hackers and Team Konoha report to the arena now. Your match will begin in five minutes," the speaker next to them announced.  
  
"We better get going and meet up with Sakura," Jasmine said as they headed for the stadium.  
  
As they entered they noticed their opponents, Kite, Blackrose and Mistral were already there waiting. Blackrose was looking at Kite and seemed frustrated while the twin blade chuckled nervously and Mistral had a large smile on her face.  
  
"I'll be back. I need to ask them a few things," Jon told his friend as he started heading for their adversaries.  
  
"Yo Kite, BRose. Any word on what the giant monster that appeared after Skieth died," Jon asked the unlikely pair.  
  
"Hey Enigma," the red twin blade was the first to answer, "We were wondering what happened to you after we got blasted by that thing."  
  
"Kite was the only one caring. You could have died for all I cared," Blackrose huffed at him.  
  
"Come one Blackrose," Mistral jumped on her back, "You don't have to be that mean to him."  
  
"She's just pissed about how I beat her in the last tournament we were in," Jon chuckled, "I got my Tidal Sword by beating her."  
  
"Well, then it's no surprise why she's angry with you," Kite laughed, "We haven't heard anything about that huge beast though."  
  
"But it does seem that the coma cases have stopped growing," Mistral piped in.  
  
Jon looked back to his partner and saw that his other teammate had returned, "Well I just wanted to ask and wish you guys good luck," he put his sword on his shoulder, "You're going to need it."  
  
"Teams, come meet me in the center of the arena," Lios barked, "There are some addtional rules that are being added for the rest of the tournament."  
  
"More rules," DarkAngel sighed with disgust.  
  
"If you don't like it then for forfeit and your team will do without you. The new rules are: 1. No reviving with Rip Mean anymore, 2. A second handicap will be added to every match from now on, 3. Any skill that be considered illegal shall not be used, that includes your modified wings DarkAngel, and if you use these kinds of skills, you will be disqualified, and 4. The losers must give up their most valuable items to the winners. Don't bother trying to give up something that isn't your best because we when we scanned you at the beginning of the tournament, we found out what was your best equipment was and you're all probably still carrying it. When your team loses, you WILL give up that item. If there are no questions, then return to your side of the arena and await my signal," everyone had left except Enigma, "Is there something you wish to say to me Enigma?"  
  
"Stacking up the odds against me is pretty low Lios. First you want to kill me, then take away my prized sword? That's low," he had a smirk across his face and an arrogant voice.  
  
"When you die, you won't need that peice of junk anyway," Lios returned to his seat, "And now the handicaps for this match will be," two of the little balls fell and Lios grinned as he saw them, "all healing skills and all items will be sealed."  
  
"Shit, no way to heal then," Enigma growled at the administrator.  
  
"Not exactly," Sakura giggled, "We still have Rig Seam, which is technically a strengthening skill."  
  
"Sweet. Blackrose will want to fight with me and I want to take her alone if you two don't mind," he gave them a playful smile.  
  
"Not at all," DarkAngel laughed slightly, "then Sakura and I will take Kite and Mistral. Just keep my health up as much as possible and attack Mistral with all you got, kay Sakura?"  
  
"Alright. No one can beat my fire and ice spells, and since Mistral will most likely use wood spells I brought some armour for each of us."  
  
"Thanks, but I'll stick with my current armour, and I doubt Enigma wants to change his either."  
  
"You read my mind. So we each fight our respective character class then?"  
  
"Begin," Lios shouted.  
  
"Enigma's mine and don't you guys help me. I want to beat him myself," Blackrose ordered as she charged at the heavy blade.  
  
"Mistral attack whenever you can, and I'll take Sakura," Kite rushed after tell rose clad wavemaster.  
  
"Ap Juks," Sakura shouted as each of her teammates gained a transparent green shield and then began a longer chant as her wand glew a pale green, "Rig Seam," a small orb appeared above Enigma's head she jumped over her small victory.  
  
"How the hell did she use a healing spell on him, they're supposed to be sealed," Lios yelled in shock.  
  
"For an administrator, you don't know a lot about this game," Balmung said who was sitting next to him, "Rig Geam and Rig Seam are considered strengthening tech so they are usable, even with your handicap."  
  
As Kite got withing skill range of Sakura, he was stopped by the ebony dagger of DarkAngel, "Your fight is with me Kite. Let the wavemasters have a magic duel while you and I settle who's the qucikest," Kite cross slashed horizontally but missed as she back flipped away and thrust forward with her white dagger. Kite countered but DarkAngel parried and used the momentum and slahed diagonally across his chest. As Kite recovered from the blow he noticed that DarkAngel had whatseemed like an evil grin across her face, "Come on Kite. I know you're more powerful than this if you beat Skieth."  
  
A little angered by her remarks Kite charged his daggers but as soon as he had done that, DarkAngel had as well. He launched his TWIN DRAGONS attack anyway, but was counter by her TWIN DARKNESS. Kite slashed away, but every attack was parried by her own technique. As both attacks finished, DarkAngel thought it was about time to finish her little game that she was playing with Kite. She kicked out one his legs, which made him start to lose his balance, then, in a spinning motion, slashed his neck and upper arm. As she got behind him, she jabbed her white dagger into the center of his back, then spun one more time and stabbed the other in the center of his stomach. Kite was unable to move, And DarkAngel kicked the end of her black dagger, making both daggers go through him and fall on the arena floor. Kite's body dropped to the floor, lifeless and pale.  
  
In an unlikely battle between wavemasters, both Sakura and Mistral were face to face staves swinging back and forth, "It seems using spells on each other, will proved useless," Sakura giggled.  
  
"Not useless but it could have been better than this," Mistral swung her staff horizontally, but Sakura ducked under it and countered by striking upward and smacking Mistral square in the face. They backed away from each other, and held their staves out and begin chanting spells. Sakura's was a faster chant but it was only a RUE DON that did next to no damage, and Mistral used all her SP to summon her best attack KRAKE PHA. The forest guardian roared and summoned many sharp branches to strike Sakura. Each branch hit the wavemaster and damaged her moderately but not enough to kill when the attack had subsided. Seeing her oppertunity Sakura began a long chant that consisted of a few hand seals. Mistral, having used up all of her current SP on the desperate Krake attack, could only hope that it naturally recharged in time to deal the final blow before her opponent could finish her chant. Even though she knew it was useless she tried openning her item bag but found she couldn't pry it open.  
  
"May all the fools who stand before me perish, by the power that you and I possess," Sakura had finally finished her chant and set her staff to her side. A large blood red energy ball appeared in front of her, and as she grabbed it with both hands and lifted it above her head, it began to pulsate. She arched her back, and then threw her hands back in front of her, "DRAGON SLAVE," the energy ball shot forward in a beam that headed straight for Mistral.  
  
"No way. The Dragon Slave attack that's only usable by having a Dragon's Master hand armour equipped. I have no problem dieing to such a rare attack," the beam hit her and a large red dome covered most of the area where the two wavemasters had fought. Mistral's body had been burned away by the extreme power of Sakura's attack. After the attack faded away, it left a large crater where Mistral had once been, only leaving her ghost, "I'm going to haunt you for killing me Sakura!!"  
  
Blackrose charged like mad at her opponent but Enigma made no move as to avoid or block her attack. She swung her large sword at his chest, but he simply bat it away with his hand. She swung again but this time at his head, and it was blocked by his sword. He grinned at her, as he showed off his sword that he had won because he had beaten her in the past, which only infuriated her even more. She hacked wildly at his body and he wasn't able to keep up with all of her attacks. She had made deep wounds to his right thigh and left hip, and was starting to get the upper hand as Enigma constantly flinched from the pain of his wounds. He sliced at the ground and made a small wall of ice that Blackrose couldn't get past without going around it. He used this little delay to let the Rig Seam skill heal him bit by bit. His wounds closed up, but he still felt like crap and without healing he would be either be dead in minutes or wishing he were dead.  
  
"Enigma, I know you have more power than this," Blackrose yelling at him with fury in her voice, "Stop messing around and fight me like I know you can," she used her KARIN attack to slice through the ice wall and charged after him, but found he was right behind and had his sword ready to attack. Before she could react, he slashed her legs and then leg swept her off her feet.  
  
"Sheer power isn't my only strength you know," Enigma laughed. He lifted his sword over his head to deal the finishing blow but she rolled out of the way and stood battle ready, "But if you want me too I can give you brute strength. How about we let our best attacks settle this," he held his sword in front of his face and it began to glow a bright blue as Blackrose did the same but hers was red. They charged at each other and unleashed their attacks  
  
GIRUE SMASH, KARIN  
  
The entire arena shock as the two swords crossed each other for a second and the two heavy blades passed by each other. They turned and faced one another, and saw that Blackrose's lower body had been frozen while Enigma's hands seemed a little burned. They laughed at one another as Blackrose fell to floor, "Only because you have Rig Seam on you. That's the only reason you won."  
  
"The winners are Team Konoha, they shall advance to the semi-finals versus either Piros or Team Syck," Lios bellowed to the crowd, "Those teams should meet in the arena in five minutes."  
  
They left they arena area to the waiting area and Jon pulled open his item began as fast as he could and pulled out some healing drinks. He quickly pulled off the top, nearly breaking the bottle in the process and poured the healing liquid over his wounds. After he was done healing his wounds, he drank another so he wouldn't feel so fatigued.  
  
"That was a lot harder than I thought it would be," Jon said sounding exhausted.  
  
"It wasn't that hard but it did have it's close spots," Kelly said lightly.  
  
"Yeah, what the hell was that attack you used though, Ms. Kelly," Jasmine saying surprised.  
  
"A secret attack I was saving for the final round, but I had to use it if I wanted to keep it," she giggled and stuck out her tounge.  
  
"It a lot of SP, if not all of yours doesn't it? No attack that powerful comes without using a lot of SP," Jon questioned.  
  
"Yeah, it uses whatever SP I have and it takes a long time to chant, the more SP, the more damage," the wavemaster whined.  
  
Lios walked up behind them, "Sakura," he yelled.  
  
"Ahh. What's with the yelling?"  
  
"I've come to tell you for using an illegal skill during your match, you will not be able to participate in the next round, or the finals should your team should make it there."  
  
"What illegal skill did she use," Jon fired at him.  
  
"From what I've heard from other players, the Dragon Slave is legal, just very hard to find and use," Jasmine backing up her friend.  
  
"This isn't about the Dragon Slave, this is about that Rig Seam spell you used in the beginning of the match on Enigma," Lios stated, "Rig Seam is a healing spell and since they were sealed, per the handicap set, you shouldn't have been able to use it. For using a spell that violates the handicap, you have been removed from your team's roster. Any prize that your team wins however, you shall still recieve it."  
  
"Rig Seam is a strengthening skill so it was usable, so I used it. Nothing is wrong with that," she protested.  
  
"But it still healed Enigma when that could have been a deciding factor in the match. You will no longer be able to enter the arena with your team, but may still watch from the stands."  
  
"This is just you using your administrator power to stack the odds against me and my team yet again," Jon yelled.  
  
"I am only making this tournament fair for everyone who entered it," he made a small gesture to Jasmine, "By the way, here are your winnings by beating Team .Hackers," he walked away.  
  
"He's only doing this so that it will easier to kill me later."  
  
"That's obvious, but it looks like we'll just have to win without you Kelly," Jasmine sighed.  
  
"It's alright. I'll cheer for you two the entire time and I can tell you guys some hints about Balmung and Kamui by watching their matches," Kelly said happily.  
  
"Nothing really get you down, huh?"  
  
"And the winner, is the long shot, Piros," a loud string of boos came afterward.  
  
"How the hell did that loser win against two wavemasters and a long arm," Jon yelled surprised at the sight of the young faced axeman had won another match.  
  
"One of the handicaps was that all Magic skills were sealed so the wavemasters were useless," a calm voice said.  
  
"Oh, hey you. You two are up next aren't you," Jasmine asked Lan and David.  
  
"Yeah, and against that Nitemare guy Jon and I fought a while back so that we got the weapons we use right now," Lan sighed.  
  
"Too bad you won't have me there to freeze him like last time," Jon laughed.  
  
"Well we got to go to our match, see you guys later," both of them walked off into the arena. They returned ten minutes later with a look of relief on their faces, "We barely beat him thanks to the fact Rig Geam was one of the handicaps," David sighed.  
  
"Your prize for winning is this sword," the NPC who had followed them handed Lan Nitemare's Soul Edge sword. She dropped it at first as she saw the eye in the sword blink at her. She gave it to Enigma and hoped she would never have to ever see such a disgusting looking weapon again.  
  
"We can relax a little before the semi-finals," David sighed as he leaned against the waiting hall walls," just then a roaring cheer came from the arena.  
  
"That must be the beginning of Balmung and Kamui's fight," Lan said depressed.  
  
"I hear that the members Team Defect are all veteren players and they should at the very least, give them a run for their money," Jasmine stated.  
  
Another roar came from the stadium, "Your winners are Balmung and Kamui," all of them snapped their heads to the speaker.  
  
"They won that quickly," David yelled.  
  
"Laannnn," Kelly came running from the seats, "I see you guyts heard. They finished each of the members of Team Defect in only two attack each."  
  
"What character classes were Team Defect," Jon asked returning to his normal sitting position.  
  
"A heavy blade, a heavy axewoman, and a blademaster."  
  
"Great, the three classes with the highest defense stats," Lan sobbed.  
  
"Attention, there will be a five minute recess. Team Konoha and Piros report for your match in ten minutes," the speaker near them announced.  
  
"It seems we're going to be Balmung and Kamui's first victims and then you two," David sighed, "At least Kelly gets out of this."  
  
"But I don't want to give up my axe to that bitch," Lan yelled.  
  
"I don't want your junk anyway," a deep voice came from behind her, "It may be the best for heavy axes, but if it is, then you should be able to defeat me Lina.  
  
"Kamui," Jon said, and saw Balmung walk up behind her, "Balmung."  
  
"Enigma, if you don't shape up, then I will destroy you whenit comes time for our fight. I know you're better than that, so stop playing around," Balmung calmly stated, but also irritated, "Kamui if you've done enough scouting, then let's get going."  
  
"Very well Lord Balmung," the heavy blade turned and placed her ax against her shoulder and left along with her teammate.  
  
The next five minutes crawled along incredably slowly as each of them thought if they could possibly beat Balmung and Kamui. They were startled when the speaker came to life, "Team Konoha, Piros report to the arena now."  
  
"Better get this over with," Jon said as he grabbed his sword and sheathed it on his back.  
  
"Hark, he of glowing eyes, and she of dark wings," a very annoying voice came from behind them which made Jon's skin crawl as he heard the voice. They turned to see the heavy axeman, Piros was running after them, "May fortune come to all of us in the coming fight."  
  
"You know that either you or us will die, so how will fortune come to all of us," Jasmine sighed frustrated.  
  
"Ahh," he seemed shocked at the response, "Then allow me say good luck to you."  
  
"Psycho," Jasmine whispered to Jon.  
  
"Tell me about it," he sighed back.  
  
"I would like to bring to everyone's attention that Sakura has been removed from Team Konoha due to breaking the handicap set during her match against Team .Hackers. Know that breaking any of the handicaps from now on will result in an automatic for your team. The handicaps for this battle will be...," Lios seemed taken back by the handicap ball he was staring at. He started to read it aloud, "The stupid, retarded, naive, axeman, Piros losses automatically," he sounded confused at the handicap he was looking at.  
  
"Your word is law around here, isn't it Lios," a blademaster out of the crowd shouted.  
  
"That's right," a rumbling sound came from Piros.  
  
"What's going on with my armor," Piros looked at himself puzzled, "Wait, this is that armour that that cat-modeled blademaster gave me. Damn you Mia for tricking me again," his armour glew brightly, then turned his entire body a bright orange, and finally exploded.  
  
"Hahaha, that fool will never learn, but at least I get to mess with him every so often," the same blademaster said.  
  
She walked down to the exit of the arena with a azure clad wavemaster following closely behind her, "Mia," Jon said surprised, "Did you do that to Piros?"  
  
"What, I was only having a little fun with him."  
  
"No. Actually, I was going to thank you cause I hate that guy."  
  
"Uhhh, do we just win automatically being our opponent is no longer living, or do we just wait till he gets back here," Jasmine asked Lios.  
  
Still having a puzzled look on his face, "Umm, Team Konoha wins by default."  
  
The entire arena remained as silent as when Piros' armour self-destructed, and Jasmine and Jon walked away slowly. The next match against Lina and Chaosb1ade against Balmung and Kamui was like a repeat of the match against Team Defect, only that they lasted maybe one more minute than the earlier match. Lina had single-handedly tried to hold off both of them while ChaosB1ade prepared a WRYNECK RF. Balmung jumped above Lan and cut down Chaosb1ade before he could even start preparibg the summon. He then charged back at Lina and was stopped by Lina's axe. She saw that the two had surrounded her and was able to fend them off for only half a minute with her ANI TORNADO, but as soon as she finished the attack. Kamui dug her axe into Lina's chest while Balmung impladed her on his sword. She then collapsed on the floor and the entire crowd cheered as Balmung raised his hand in victory. An NPC tried to hand them Lina's axe and Chaosb1ade's staff, but they refused to take their weapons from them.  
  
"Attention players," Lios stood and faced the crowd, "The final match will be between Team Konoha consisting of Enigma and DarkAngel, versus Balmung of the Azure Sky and the leader of The Cobalt Knights, Kamui. The final match will have different rules from the rest of the tournament all together. There will be no randomly drawn handicap for this match, and it will be a no-rules fight to the death. To make this match even more exciting, all players will be required to remove all pieces of armour and only have their weapon equipped. The final match will begin in a half an hour."  
  
"Damn, he's making this match so one-sided by making us remove all our armour," Jon said to Jasmine.  
  
"Without my armour, I won't be able to use my wings," Jamsine thinking aloud, "I won't have the flight advantage over Kamui, and you won't have the elemental defence advantage against Balmung."  
  
"Well think about it," Jon looking at the bright side of things, "Without our armour we lose a lot of things, but so do they. Their defence goes down just like ours, and if anything, you would be able to move faster without your armour," he paused for a second then faced Jasmine with a very serious expresion on his face, "Are you absolutely sure you can go through with this Jasmine? Are you sure you can watch Balmung die and can you save me if he looks like he will kill me? I need to know now and look at me in the face."  
  
"I told you already that I would do what I have to," she yelled at him, "Don't you think I would save you if had to?"  
  
"Love makes you do crazy things, and make you betray close friends just to make the person you love happy. I want you to say straight to my face you will kill Balmung if it has to come to that," he grabbed her made her face him, "Say it so I know that I can trust you with my life, my very existance."  
  
She struggled to free herself, "I...I...can't," tears formed in her eyes, "I can't promise you that I will kill Balmung if you're in danger. He and I are in love and he's offered to move me to Japan after school gets out. I can't betray his trust."  
  
"And yet you can betray mine? We've been friends for years yet you throw that away for this guy that you've never meet in person," he yelled at the top of his voice. His voice was filled with anger and his face showed fury. He then let her go and turned his back to her, "I just wanted to confirm that, I now know that I can't trust you with my life and I won't expect it of you. If I die today, I hope that you have a nice life with your boyfriend," he walked off and left her crying on the ground. He walked along with his head down when Kelly came running up to him, "Oh hey Kelly," he thought of something he needed done, "Kelly, I need either you, Lan, or David to do something for me before the match starts."  
  
"What do you need? I have nothing to do except watch the match which I care not to do," the cheery wavemaster said.  
  
"It may be a longshot, but I want you to grab your laptop and another one and hook my body up to it. My password is sakura okay?"  
  
"Huh, why do you want me to do that and why use my screen name as your password?"  
  
"I said it's a longshot and I don't know what will really happen, but I know something will. As for the password," he stopped to catch his breath, "You know I like Sakura from Naruto just you like Naruto," he chuckled and ran off before she could respond.  
  
(0)  
  
Jasmine wanted to go after Jon and try to explain herself but she knew that was useless. After a few minutes she walked around Carmina Gadelica when she spotted Balmung near the recorder.  
  
"How are you doing Angel, you seem really down about something," he lifted her chin, "Is this about our upcoming fight?"  
  
Her eyes became watery, "Isn't there someway where you don't have to kill him. Forfeit the match, get someone else to take your place, something?"  
  
"Why do you protect him with the same passion you have with me Angel? There is something about him that has you troubled and that won't allow you to see him in pain, and I don't know what that is. If you could tell me then maybe I could think of a way to end this without bloodshed."  
  
She remembered one thing that Jon had told them when he regained his memories, "I don't want anyone knowing that I'm here and body in a coma. I could be hunted down for research and then I'll never get out of here."  
  
"I can't do that," she whined, "It would be betraying his trust more than I already have."  
  
"You sound like you know him personally and not just as a aquaintance in the world. He really isn't an AI like I was lead to believe is he?"  
  
"No, he's just a player who somehow got on Lios' bad side. He hasn't done anything wrong. He's only acted in self-defence and to protect others."  
  
"He knows about us as well?"  
  
"Yeah, when Lios and Helba injured you, I brought you to his field that he had created. That and when I saved you both in that dungeon a couple days ago. He just put those things together and knows about us."  
  
"I suppose he knew that having you fight me wouldn't be an option either?"  
  
"Yeah," tears began to flow down her cheeks, "I told him that there was no way I could harm you even if he were about to die."  
  
"Tell what is so different about him that makes you fell this way. I swear whatever you tell me will never be discussed again with anyone."  
  
She confessed everything about their incident with Skieth and showed him the video that Helba had recorded, "Could you kill him knowing what you do now?"  
  
"I don't belive this. He has a bracelet just like that Kite character? That and for some reason, he is in a coma yet still in the world? No wonder he seems in so much pain when he fights."  
  
"Can you do something, anything?"  
  
"I can't promise anything, and the match will still have to go on. If you have to protect him, then by all means do so. If he dies, then there's no telling what will happen to him, and it's unknown if his character can be revived in case he does. If Lios knew this then he would surely delete him without question so we have to keep him in the dark. I will however not hold back from him. He and I have a score to settle."  
  
"That's fine with me," she had started to look a little happier, "By the way, are you really serious about me coming out to Japan to meet you?"  
  
"It's almost time for the match, we'll discuss that more after we're done here."  
  
Chapter 21 End

A/N: HAHAHA. I love making Piros look like a complete moron and everyone else hating the bastard. I know other people who hate him as well so whatever. Hope this writing spree continues so I can finish this fic soon.


	22. Chapter 22: My Last Stand

A/N: I finally found a window in which I could finish my fanifc and I finally have it done. After the long hardship of losing half of it due to crappy file tranfers, I managed to finish this story. Here are the last two chapters to my fanfic, enjoy.

Chapter 22: My Last Stand

The clock in Carmina Gadelica tolled five minutes before the final battle of the tournament and Jon had been sitting at the grunty pen waiting for Kelly to return. His mind still dwelled on Jasmine and how she had betrayed him, which kept his anger burning. He would make Balmung and her suffer if it was the last thing he would do. His small baby grunty that he had moved from the Theta server to Lambda had grown into what he would call a teenage grunty. The grunty came up to him and nudged him a bit, "Dad, what's with you? You seem angry about something."

"It's nothing," Jon snapped, "I don't have any more food for you today, sorry. I have to get going now, so I'll see you later. If Sakura comes looking for me, tell her I'm at the stadium, okay," he stormed off to the stadium and pulled out his sword. He had another five minutes before the match but that didn't matter to him, since he was still furious at Jasmine. He walked straight into the arena where some of the spectators had started to return to watch his match. He stood there not moving an inch and staring at the gate from where Balmung would emerge from. He started to prepare his Rue Divider attack and felt his own hand starting to freeze from the power of the attack and stopped. His concentration was broken by a voice coming from the crowd, "Enigma, everything is set up," he looked and saw that Kelly had returned and given him a thumbs up. He knew something would happen from his body being connected to the game, but didn't know exactly what At least he had some some other friends that he could count on that wouldn't betray him for someone like Balmung.

He stared back at the gate and after a few minutes felt a hand on his shoulder. Without even turning around he spoke, "Jasmine, I have nothing to say to you at all. I'm going to make Balmung suffer and have you watch as I do it. If my life means nothing to you, then his means absolutely nothing to me."

"Jon what are you planning to do," she came to apologize and was taken back by his words.

"I plan to give him a taste of what I've had deal with," he held up his left wrist.

She caught on quickly to what he was thinking, "That's doing too much Jon. You can't do that, I know you wouldn't do that."

"Fighting to stay alive makes a you do things you thought you would never do in this lifetime," he said coldly.

"You don't understand. I talked with Balmung. He only wants to have a fair rematch with you," she stopped herself soon after saying that.

"So you talked with him after our little argument," his voice changed from cold to irritated. Jasmine could feel his shoulder becoming colder and then noticed her hand was becoming frozen in a block of ice.

"What are you doing," she pulled her hand away, "How did you...?"

"Neat trick huh," he turned to face her and she saw his eyes had changed from their normal icy glow to what seemed like a dark void in his eyes, "I have a change of heart as of late about how I should face this problem," his voice had become cold once more, "You once asked me what would I do if I could never return to my original body and back then I couldn't find an answer."

"You have one now?"

"Yeah," he chuckled loudly, "I'll make everyone who gets near me feel my pain and anguish as I draw them into this world along with me. With this bracelet on my left wrist, I will make them all feel what it's like to be left here and fend for yourself."

"What are you saying? Just listen to yourself. You and Kelly were the ones who were most against using the bracelets powers, but now you're going to use it on anyone you just gets near you?"

"He won't listen to you, foolish girl," a strange woman's voice echoed in her head, "He's now my puppet, and will do whatever I tell him to, and I have you to thank for that."

"Wha, who's there," she frantically looked around in the crowd to see who had spoken to her, "Thank me, and what did you do to Enigma?"

"I'm inside you, or should I say your bracelet," she sounded like a heavenly angel's voice that seemed to calm Jasmine down from her frantic searching, realizng the voice was in her head, "I must say that your little situation with Balmung and Enigma has finally pushed him over the edge and into my clutches."

"What are you talking about?"

"The bracelet on yours and his arms is a way that I can look at you. I must say that you two alone have interesting lives inside the world. You with your many lies to Balmung, Enigma, Lios, and your closest friends. He and his constant struggle for survival, and fighting against my advances into his mind. Your other friends are interesting as well, but not as much as you two."

"Who are you, and how are you able to look at us without our knowing?"

"Enigma has told you my name and I bet you can guess how I can do what I can after you figure out the first hint."

"Morganna," she whispered.

"Exactly, and what Enigma told you about me is true. I am the mother of the world and I can look at each of you by my will alone. I'm the one who created Skieth, the bracelets, and that excuse for a daughter, Aura."

"Next question then, how are you controlling Enigma now?"

"When I fought him a few days ago, I fired a data drain at him, but his bracelet absorbed it. At first I saw this as failure, but it has given me a new way to gain victory. Over the past few days, and during this tounament I have been suggesting to him that fighting at his current power is pointless and to just let me give him more power. I must say that he has a lot of will to keep from letting go after the first few attempts, but his anger made him give into me. You've never seen him this mad at anything before have you?"

Jasmine recalled the incident where Jon grabbed his chest when she, Kelly, and David found him, "I can't say that I have being he is normally such a carefree guy."

"And because of you and Balmung he finally gave into me and asked for power that could make both of you suffer like he has. Now nothing will stop him from full filling that wish. Nothing short of death or data drain that is, which you or your friends could never do to him. Regardless of whether I'm in control of him or not, the man you see in front of you is Enigma. It will be enjoyable to watch you, as Enigma kills Balmung, data drains him and make you watch as it all happens," Morganna laughed evily at Jasmine as her voice faded away.

"It's time," Jon said as the gate on the other side of the arena opened, "I'll only say this once, get in my way and I'll kill you and do the same to you as I will Balmung."

She froze as the words came to her. She never in her right mind would ever think this was her friend in front of her. She fell to her knees and a single tear fell down her cheek, "I understand, Enigma."

(0)

As Balmung and Kamui entered the arena, they knew something was off. The blademaster turned to his commrade, "This doesn't feel right. Should we really have to delete one character that has not done anything wrong?"

"You have your orders Balmung, and I will delete him if you can't," Kamui shouted at him, "These AIs are a plague in the system, and it's my job to cleanse them from it. I do admit that there is something strange at work here."

Lios, appeared in the center of the arena and had the teams meet him, "Now per the rules given at the end of the semifinals, I need each of you to remove all you armor and place it here," a small pedestal appeared in front of each team. Without their armor of, it seemed Kamui only had a dark pink tanktop and long dress of the same color, while Balmung had only a blue, skin tight jumpsuit. He still had his wings on his arms and back. DarkAngel had a look of shear terror on her face and Balmung wondered what could frighten her that much. Without her armor, she only had on a black t-shirt and dark blue shorts that went down to half way down her shins. He got a look a Enigma who stared blankly into Balmung. He suddenly got an image in his head of Enigma slicing his head off. He gasped for air as he regained his senses and folded his arms. He looked back at Enigma who still had the same look of determination on his face. He had only a sleeveless navy shirt and black shorts that had once been pants but ripped. After every peice of armor was placed on the pedestals, they disappeared without any trace, "We will hold onto your armor till after the match is over and the proper winnings have been taken out. Return to your entry gate and prepare to fight to the death!!"

As he walked back Balmung turned to Kamui, "I will take on Enigma, myself. He and I have unfinished buisness, so just keep DarkAngel off my back."

"Whatever you ask Lord Balmung. Just be sure that you kill and delete him this time. I shall make sure that twin blade will not be a problem for you."

"Fine just," he stopped as he started to say don't hurt DarkAngel, but knew that would cause suspicion.

"M'Lord?"

"Nothing. Let us just get this over with. Unilike you, I'm not being paid for this."

"As you wish," Kamui looked a little confused by his statement.

"The final match of the Lambda tournament will begin," Lios gave a slight pause, "NOW!!!"

"Just stay out of my way unless you want to die like Balmung will," Enigma said before dashing straight towards Balmung with sword grasped in both hands. His sword became incased in a thich layer of ice and snow swirled around the ice casing. He stopped short, braced and swung his sword in a giant swing, "BLIZZARD STORM," the snow and ice flew off his sword and created a large whilrwind of ice and headed straight for Balmung. The blizzard attack engulfed his body and then headed straight into the air. The crowd gasped as they saw that Balmung was nowhere to be seen as the blizzard passed over him leaving no trace of the powerful blademaster. The attack formed into a ball and exploded forming a layer of snow over the battefield. Enigma frowned and grolwed as he looked to the sky and saw nothing around.

"Interesting attack, Enigma," Balmung appeared behind him, and decended from the air, "Unfortunately for you, my wings make that attack useless. I'm glad that you're not going to hold back on me this time though, RUE CRACK," Balmung's sword filled with frozen energy and slashed downward into Enigma's left shoulder. The blade stopped shortly after cutting into his shoulder and froze his entire shoulder. Enigma only chuckled which took Balmung back, and then noticed that his sword was becoming incased in ice as well as Enigma's shoulder, and the ice had actually formed into a make-shift shoulder plate. Balmung drew back his ice-covered sword and slammed it into the ground to break off the ice, "What kind of trick is this?"

"Something I saved just for this match against you. I forsee your death and there is nothing you can do to prevent it," Enigma yelled and slashed horizontally, and Balmung held up his sword to block the attack. The force of Enigma's blow made Balmung to lose grip of his sword and was still able wound Balmung's torso.

Balmung quickly reclaimed his sword and backed away from his aggressor, "When did you become that damn strong?"

"That's for you to find out, and my Blizzard Storm wasn't used just to hurt you," Enigma slashed again which caused Balmung to stagger from the blow. He continuously attacked with giant swings of his sword that kept Balmung off balance and unable to mount anykind of counter attack. Balmung had tried to use his wings to fly away, but Enigma grabbed one of his legs and threw him into the ground and stomped on him, "And now to take care of those," he grabbed one of Balmung's wings with his right hand and held it in a vice grip, that Balmung couldn't break free from. After a few seconds of struggling, Balmung noticed that he was unable to move his wing anymore and noticed that it has frozen into a block ice, "Now let's see if you fly away from me," Enigma chuckled as he let go. Balmung quickly changed weapons and used a Vak Revolver to get Enigma off away from him and to try and melt away the ice on his wing, "That won't do you any good," Enigma laughed as he watched Balmung feeble attempts, "Tell me that Balmung of the Azure Sky isn't this weak. Last time you and I ended our battle in a tie thanks to DarkAngel, but this time that bitch won't be able to stop me!!"

Balmung charged at Enigma at those words and used a GiVak Crack but was blocked by Enigma's shoulder plate of ice, "I will fight you with everything I have, but call Angel that again, and I WILL make sure you never speak another word," he slashed downward from where he hit the shoulder plate and cut his arm.

"Is that all it takes to get your blood boiling? Then I wonder how you'll feel after I kill that little bitch," Enigma turned his head away and stared at DarkAngel, who was dodging Kamui's attacks while giving slight attacks in between each maneuver. He held out his left arm as some of the snow swirled up to his palm, "GIRUE ZOT," the snow dispersed and ice pillars shot out of the ground into both DarkAngel and Kamui, "Good. Maybe I kill Kamui at the same time as I kill DarkAngel," Enigma laughed in Balmung's face.

"Balmung, you fool," Kamui yelled at her partner, "Don't use attacks like that in such close quarters or you'll get me as well," she lost concentration on DarkAngel and when see turned back to fight her, the twin blade was nowhere to be seen.

"TWIN DARKNESS," DarkAngel yelled as she began spinning with both her blades covered in black energy from above. She flipped over and dealt 12 continuous slashes and missing the last two as Kamui rolled away. Before she could heal, DarkAngel ran into her face and both her blades became covered with light energy, "THUNDER DANCE!!" DarkAngel slashed from right to left and dealing tremendous damage to Kamui. She jumped around gave one final thrust into Kamui's chest and the Heavy Ax fell to the floor lifeless. DarkAngel then fell to her knees and breathed a sigh of relief.

(0)

"Good. Angel is safe, at least for now," Balmung thought to himself as he pushed Enigma back and quickly restored lost HP with a healing elixir. He still hadn't been able to make a great counter-attack against the raging Enigma who had only assaulted him and took advantage of his classes better attack. Without any of his armor, he couldn't use any kind of magic attacks on Enigma and he didn't have any scroll items that could help him. His wing was still frozen so flying and using quick attacks from the air was useless. He lunged forward and thrusted with his sword to try and find an opening but left himself open to a knee to his stomach. He collapsed after the wind had been taken out of him and seemed paralyzed until Enigma swung his sword back at him. Balmung saw his chance and unleashed another GiVak Crack and connected into Enigma's stomach. The flames on Balmung's sword then flowed from the sword and all over Enigma's body. Enigma back away for a secind then regained his balance and the flames on his body vanished, "How could he have gotten this powerful in this short amount of time," Balmung thought to himself, "In his fight with Blackrose, he was barely able to stay alive, but now. He seems like he's just playing around with me," rolled away from Enigma's next attack but was caught as Enigma slammed the flat part into his side and was thrown into arena wall.

"I suppose I should end your suffering soon," Enigma chuckled, "but first," he held out his sword in front of him as the snow covering the field began swirling toward the top of the sword, "To think this boy had this much power but didn't think to use it. He would have let it gone to waste but I won't, FROZEN TUNDRA," the snow swirling around the top of the sword flowed into it then Enigma charged at Balmung with the speed of a twin blade. He slashed continuoulsy at Balmung, leaving no chance for the blademaster to counter attack or even defend. Each slash delt massive damage that forced Balmung to heal with items. Enigma's last attack of the combo was a jumping downward slash that caused a ice spire to shoot out of the ground, and froze Balmuing in the center of it. Enigma rose after the last blow and his knees buckled and gave out, "Now I see why this guy never used the attack. It wears him out and can't move real well after doing it. I can at least do one other thing though."

"What the hell is he talking about. It looks like he's talking to him," Balmung could only watch from his frozen prison as he saw Enigma sheath his sword and raise his left hand. He passed his right hand over the wrist and saw a bracelet of light form around his wrist. The bracelet then streched into points at certains places and began to pulsate.

"Now, DIE. DATA DRAIN," Enigma shouted as the bracelet fired a stream of data toward Balmung. All time seemed to slow down as Balmung could only watch as the data got closer and saw flashes of memories enter his mind. He saw the first time he ever saw Enigma and DarkAngel and when he defeated the one sin event with Orca. He snapped back into the present time as he saw a dark figure ran in front of the data drain. He noticed that the figure was DarkAngel and she had a bracelet on her own wrist.

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner but I was afraid of what would happen. Please forgive for that and this," DarkAngel said as she threw her white blade into the ice and a lightning bolt struck the top of the ice spire, destroying it and killing Balmung at the same time, "Now to deal with this, DATA DRAIN," her bracelet fired its own data stream.

"NO," Enigma shouted as the attacks collided and a bright light covered everyone in the arena and time stood still for everyone except Enigma, DarkAngel, Sakura, who was in the stands, and ChaosB1ade who was next to her. They all looked around to see that all the scenery was white while the other players were black, "Now that this has happened I can't keep control of him," Enigma said as he fell to the floor.

"Kelly, go check on Jon and see if he's okay," Jasmine ordered as she started resting. An axewoman appeared in the center of the arena passed out.

"Is that Lan," David jumped from the seats to the arena and went to inspect the mysterious player, "It's not her, but it looks a lot like her."

"Jon, get up," Kelly shouted at the heavy blade trying to wake him up, "Lan called me from the hospital saying that your in trouble, and we need to get you out of here."

Jon groaned as he slowly got to his knees, "What do you mean? Why is Lan in the hospital?"

"You asked me to hook your body into the world and I asked Lan to keep an eye on your body and during your fight with Balmung, she said that somehow your body started recieving internal injuries similar to the injuries you were getting here. Here, drink this," she gave him a healing elixir and he was able to stand up on his own. She stood starig blankly into space for a second, "That was Lan again, she said that your body somehow made a miraculous recovery and you've returned to normal."

"I knew something would happen, but I didn't think that would happen," he still hadn't regained all his strength but enough to walk on his own. He looked around and then David kneeling next to the axewoman, "David, get away from her now!!"

"Why, what's wrong," the wavemaster turned to him and didn't notice that the axewoman had grabbed her axe and got to her feet. As he turned back to her, she swung her ax into his chest and lifted him into the air. She swung him around on the ax then slammed him down into the ground, killing him quickly.

"Sakura, heal him quickly," Jon stared at the axewoman who stared back with a grin on her face, "So we meet again, Morganna."

Chapter 22 End


	23. Chapter 23: The End to the Nightmare

Chapter 23: The End to the Nightmare

Staring back at Enigma's eyes Morganna grinned slightly, then swung her axe around to her back, "Why do look so angry Enigma? I only let fulfill the desire you wanted. You wanted to make DarkAngel suffer for betraying you to Balmung and I let you have that chance."

"With the cost of my mind and free will," Jon snapped, "I was pissed off and that's it. I never wanted you to take control of me and kill the bastard!!"

"But you have to admit that you loved the power that I gave you."

"The power was great, but what I care most about is getting back home, and that means killing you," Jon then charged at Morganna with sword cleched tightly in hand, "Kelly, go help David out before she decides to use data drain, Jasmine.... help me out with Morganna," the twin blade followed her orders and charged Morganna from her back.

"It seems you've forgotten the outcome of our last battle because this will end the same way even if you have help, ANI TORNADO," Morganna waited till Jon and Jasmine were in striking range before unleashing her powerful darkness attack that blew both of them back, "I will make you realize you're dead and that there is nothing you can do that will bring you back," she then charged at the weakened heavy blade but was stopped by a wall of fire. Morganna turned to see that Kelly had her staff pointed at her and David was rising and summoning his own attack. The wavemaster summoned Wryneck, the darkness summon, to blast Morganna with shadow energy that pinned her to one of the arena walls. She curled up her body and then shot all her limbs as far as she could which gave a shockwave that knocked everyone to their feet. She then charged after the wavemaster but was stopped as Enigma rushed in front of her and used his sword like a baseball bat and bashed the flat egde into her face. She fell flat on her back and noticed that DarkAngel and the two wavemasters were preparing large spells. Morganna got to her feet but couldn't run away as Enigma grabbed her from behind and held her so that she couldn't move. She was injured so badly that she couldn't overpower Enigma like she had done before.

"If you're so powerful then you should be able to handle these attacks easily. I might not be able to, but I'll die knowing that you'll go along with me," Enigma chuckled as the other three finished casting their spells. Kelly used Vulcan Pha, which breathed flames over the two players, while Jasmine shocked them GiRai Don. David unfortunately used up most of his SP with Wryneck so he used a simple Juk Rom spell. Enigma released Morganna as the two had cuts and burns all over their bodies. Enigma was the first to rise saw that Morganna was on her knees gasping for breath. He stood silent for a moment then held his sword to his right wrist and sliced it, making a small wound from which his blood began to flow freely, "You used this attack on Balmung and now it's time you witnessed it's power first-hand," the blood from his wound began to swirl around the sword as the snow had from the first time it had been used, "It's time you die, FROZEN TUNDRA," Enigma charged at Morganna and slashed numerous times with all the strength he had then leaped into the air and the Tidal Sword grew in size for a second as he gave his final blow to Morganna. The last strike formed a large crater and Morganna laid in the middle of it, slightly twitching which was the only sign of life she gave.

"I thought your attack freezes it opponent in place like it did with Balmung," Jasmine said as she ran to keep Jon from falling over completely.

"That's what the snow was for," he laughed, "Jasmine you and David grab a hold of Morganna and make sure she doesn't move. Don't worry, after my last combo, she's too weak to resist anymore. Kelly, act as a brace for me cause I know I won't be able to hold my arm steady for what I need to do," he stood shakily as David and Jasmine retrieved Morganna and brought her and Jon face to face. She was still unconscious from the last attack, and Jon raised his left arm but found he didn't have the strength to hold it up. Kelly got behind him and helped raised his arm to point directly toward Morganna, "This has to work, DATA DRAIN," his bracelet flickered into life and shot a beam of data. The force of the data threw him backward but Kelly was behind him holding him upright while Jasmine and David waited till the last second before getting away from Morganna from the fear that they would be affected by the data drain if they didn't. The data beam pierced through Morganna's body and started ripping it apart piece by piece.

"You may have destroyed this charcter data, Enigma, but there is no way you can kill me," Morganna yelled as her face dissintagrated away into nothing. The only thing that was left of her was a small pulsating orb. Jasmine picked up the orb and her head instantly filled with images that she had no understanding of until she saw herself in one of them. She dropped the orb and as it hit the ground, the light glew dimmer and pulsated faster.

"Don't you dare break that thing," Jon shouted at her as he slowly crawled his way over to it. His strength gave out before he could reach it, "Kelly hand me it. I know that orb has something to do with me," Kelly grabbed the orb and she seemed as motinless as Jasmine had when she picked it up. She shook her head and and blushed a little as she handed the small orb over to her friend. As Jon held it in his hand the orb glew brightly and was suddenly able to stand without any problem and the orb levitated out of his hand and began to be absorbed into his body. He shouted for a few seconds, but then sighed and then chuckled a bit as he looked around and saw that everyone in the arena had been cheering and seemed that time had reverted back to normal. He turned to see a stunned look on Lios' face and Jon gave an evil grin to the administrator.

"The winners of the Lambda re-openning tournament are," Lios paused and swallowed for a second, "Team Konoha," the entire crowd cheered loudly as Jasmine threw her arms around Jon as they both fell to the floor and to his surprise, Jon hadn't felt the pain of falling to the ground. They laughed together as they celebrated their victory over both Balmung and Morganna. A few minutes later the first, second, and third placed teams were assembled. Piros had gotten third along with David and Lina due to the fact his match was rigged by Mia, and it was Lios' way of compensation.

"See," the axeman said to Jon and Jasmine, "fortune did come to us all in the end," the axeman laughed joyfully.

"God, I wish I could kill him and be done listening to that idiot," Jon groaned.

Lios handed the third placed teams a chest that had some rare weapons and armor inside of it. He handed Balmung and Kamui a Golden Grunty, and then approached Jon's team, "However much I don't like it that you won, you deserve your prize. The weapon creator and expansion set will be sent to each of you via email attachments. Enigma, I'm not through with you yet, but by god I won't try to do it today after what you just did."

The five friends rejoiced as they left the stadium and cheered, "Well I guess it's time I tried to log out now," he attempted to but found that the golden rings would stop midway the freeze there, "Hey, what the hell?"

"No way we went through all that, and we still didn't cure your condition," Lan sobbed slightly.

"Just kidding," laughed as he resumed the log out sequence, as his body faded away. He awoke and found that he was staring into a dark void, but out of the corner of his eyes he could see white light. He tried to move his arms, but felt that they were either restrained or he just couldn't lift them, "Sa..ra, help me," he heard someone sound surprised, "He.. m..e g...t t..is ...ing.. o.f."

"Wait a minute. Is he really awake under that headset," a mysterious voice said then sounded excited as it called for someone to come to see him. The voice got farther away as it got more excited. It returned with other familiar voices that he knew as some of his friends.

"Sakura? Is that you and everyone else," Jon said without being able to see who was there.

"No, it's not Sakura," it was obviously her voice but as the headset was removed from his eyes he could see clearly who it was, "It's me, Kelly."

"What the hell," he looked around to see he was in a hospital room with Kelly, Lan, and his mother in the room. He raised his head to see some doctors rushing in but being stopped by David telling them he needed some time with his family. He collapsed back into the pillow, "Why do I feel so numb?"

"You've had a lot of drugs go through your body through this," Lan lifted his arm and he saw an IV in his wrist, "Docs said you would feel like crap when you would wake up. Guess they were right," she giggled.

"I don't care about that now. All I care about is that I'm back home," Jon said relieved, "My nightmare is finally over."

Unforeseen Danger End

A/N: It's finally over, and I can finally get a full night's sleep again. At least until I feel I need to get started on my next fanfic. Check my bio which has my fanfic status and what some of my next projects will be. Hope you readers liked it cause it was good for me to write it, LATES.

FF7-CLOUDSTRIFE


End file.
